Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoon

     Notes: Designed to replace a variety of aircraft in several European nations, this aircraft has been plagued by delays.  The Eurofighter was produced in an international consortium of Germany, France (though France left the program early on), Spain, Britain, and Italy. Austria, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia also bought the Typhoon, though Austria, citing high maintenance and upgrade costs, plans to replace its Typhoons with F/A-18s or Gripens. Initial design work began in 1983, but first service did not occur until 2003, and first flight in 1994; political developments in the designers’ countries led to many delays and near-cancellations. The Eurofighter is an advanced multi-role aircraft using some of the latest aircraft design, including a supercruise capability (cruise speeds in excess of Mach 1), special chaff that radiates a radar signal of its own, towed decoys that deploy behind the aircraft when cruising to further confuse enemy radar and IR detection equipment, a “semi-stealth” design, and the latest electronics. 

     The chaff designed for the Eurofighter radiates a radar and radio frequency.  This chaff degrades enemy radar detection and guidance attempts against the Eurofighter in the same manner as normal chaff, but at one level better in effectiveness.  This chaff can be loaded into other aircraft, but only in the US F-22 Raptor or B-2 Spirit will it function with the special effectiveness.  The chaff can also be loaded into the airbrakes of the Eurofighter, but if this is done it will function only as normal chaff.  This chaff costs triple the normal amount of standard chaff.  The Eurofighter can tow two decoys from the rear of the aircraft; these decoys follow the aircraft at a distance of 30 meters and add another level of deception jamming capability, and also function as IRCM 1 devices.  They will be lost 40% of the time if the Eurofighter turns with an agility of 8 or greater.  In addition, they will be lost on the same roll if the Eurofighter flies at 80% or greater of its maximum speed.  These two circumstances are additive.   The Eurofighter was not specifically designed to have stealth features, but has them as a consequence of its design and construction. 

     The Typhoon uses a cranked delta wing and loosely coupled canards along with an unstable configuration.  These are combined with fly-by-wire controls to ensure the aircraft’s stability in all flight regimes. The two wingtip hardpoints may only be used for heat seeking air-to-air missiles or flare or chaff pods, or ECM or IRCM pods, and four of the underfuselage hardpoints may only be used for radar-homing or active-homing air-to-air missiles, flare or chaff pods, or ECM or IRCM pods.  Only 5 of the remaining hardpoints (two under each wing, and one under the fuselage) may be used for drop tanks or heavy ordnance such as cruise missiles or 1000-kilogram bombs. There are also attachment points for Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFTs), with two able to carry a total of 3000 liters of fuel. The Typhoon is powered by a pair of Eurojet EJ200 turbofan engines, each developing 13500 pounds thrust dry and 20230 pounds thrust in afterburner.

     Most variants, including the build Tranches and Blocks, differ primarily in the software and hardware to carry an ever-increasing variety of fuel tanks, weapons, and pylons.  Tranche 3, however, included a number of upgrades, including an advanced AESA radar, EW upgrades, air-to-ground and air-to-air communications, and cyberwarfare capabilities, as well as the Striker Helmet-Mounted Display and Typhoon Direct Voice Input system.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: Very few Typhoons were ready for the Twilight War.  So few were built that only Germany got more than 10 of them (and they only got 12). Tranche 3 aircraft are not available in the Twilight 2000 timeline.

*The Typhoon is Supercruise capable.

Panavia Tornado ADV

     Notes: The ADV variant of the Tornado was developed starting in 1976 as a fighter/interceptor version of the Tornado. The ADV (Air Defence Variant) was based on the Tornado IDS (found in International Strike Aircraft), and so development proceeded apace, with the first flight in 1979, though the first squadron service did not take place until 1986. The vastly improved F3 reached squadrons in 1989. The Tornado ADV was used by the RAF, Royal Saudi Air Force, and Italian Air Force; the latter used them for only a short time in the early 2000s as a stopgap while they were waiting for their Eurofighter Typhoons. Currently, the Tornado has been retired by all former users.

     The Tornado ADV is a variable geometry aircraft with four sweep positions. The wings’ sweep angle is chosen manually by the pilot.  The wing hardpoints also pivot as the wings’ sweep angle changes. The crew has ejection seats, and the aircraft is capable of in-flight refueling.  The Tornado IDS has ten hardpoints, four under the flat fuselage belly and six under the wings. Up to 4 of its hardpoints may be used for drop tanks, two under each wing; however, the fuselage missile hardpoints may be sacrificed fin favor of two wet hardpoints. Four of the underfuselage hardpoints are the semiconformal hardpoints and may only be used for Sparrow, Skyflash, or AMRAAM missiles. Controls are hydraulic, but actuated by the fly-by-wire architecture. The fly-by-wire system also makes dozens of micro-adjustments per second to keep the aircraft stable during its flight and maneuvers. Differences between the IDS and ADV include a greater sweep angle on the wing gloves, a longer nose to accommodate the AI.24 Foxhunter radar, slightly longer airbrakes, and a 1.36-meter longer fuselage allowing for more of the semiconformal pylons for Skyflash and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. The addition of the 1.36 meters of length also had the unexpected effect of lessening drag, and allowed for an additional 909-liter fuel tank.  The ADV is equipped with Link-16 data sharing communications equipment.

     The F2 was the initial production example; serious problems with the Foxhunter radar led to great delays and the F2 had no radar installed. Therefore, in the nose was a concrete ballast weight to balance the aircraft in flight; this led to crews calling the F2 the Blue Circle, after a popular British brand of concrete. The F2 was powered by two RB199 Mk 103 turbofan engines, which have a thrust rating of 9105 pounds of thrust each, or 16000 pounds each in afterburner. The F2’s wings were capable of four wing sweep settings. Though the fuselage semiconformal missile pylons were present on the F2, the Skyflash missiles they were designed for were not carried due to the lack of a radar installation. The primary reason for the existence of the F2 was to familiarize crews with the ADV; they were never meant to be actual operational aircraft.  Only 18 F2s were built, and they were used primarily as training aircraft.

     The F3 had its first flight in 1985, and was declared operational in 1989.  It was powered by two RB199 Mk 104 turbofan engines, with 9277 pounds of dry thrust each and 16,410 pounds of thrust in afterburner. The Mk 104 engines are designed for high acceleration and optimized for efficiency at high altitude. The F3’s wings have automatic sweep; the wings change their angle of sweep in response to changes in airspeed. The automatic sweep angle may be overridden by the pilot, but the manufacturer does not recommend this. The F3’s (and F2’s) avionics are primarily designed for interceptor missions and the ADV does not carry some of the air-to-ground avionics carried by the IDS, while being equipped with some additional air combat avionics. F3s were initially armed with Skyflash and Sidewinder missiles, but the F3 later used AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, and could also use AIM-7 Sparrow missiles instead of the Skyflash missiles (the Skyflash was derived from the Sparrow). The F3 also gained the ability to use the AIM-132 ASRAAM heat seeking missile. The F3 was also modified to use the ALARM antiradiation missile; the Tornado ADV’s RWR was compatible with hardware and software to detect, locate, and pinpoint radar sources, allowing the F3 to operate as an ad hoc SEAD aircraft, with two ALARM missiles being carried on pylons below the fuselage. (These modified F3s were given the unofficial designation of EF3.) The “EF3” can be used as an F3 without modification.

     The F2A version was mostly upgraded to F3 standards, but retained the Mk 103 engines of the F2.  They did double duty as operational and training aircraft.

*The cockpit has a Kevlar antispalling liner and has an AV of 7.