Typhoon breathing down the Raptor's neck?

During evaluations and trials at NAS China Lake last year two Typhoons were pitched against F-22s. The Typhoons excelled in close range combat with the F-22s, but surprised everybody by locking on to the F-22s before the F-22s could get a lock-on on the Typhoons during BVR trials as well. I guess it will take a while before we will get to know if it was just a lucky break or not, because the USAF cancelled a similar excersise planned for the next day and put a lid on the whole thing. Perhaps the gap between the best and second best air superiority fighter isn't as huge as we imagined after all?

 

so i wonder wich one is best and wich one is second? :roll:

 

never heard of the Typhoon

 

Also known as the Eurofighter. I like to call it Typhoon because I regard it as a mostly British fighter. And I think the F-22 is the best fighter.

 

Link to the source?

 

Interesting. I'd say the Typhoon pilots had superior skill, but you never know.

 

I knew you'd ask!

Mind you, if you hadn't I would have...

 

International Air Power Review 20, page 45.

 

I don't think the Raptor pilots are the greenest in the USAF either.

 

Never knew much about the Eurofighter; got no books on it, only the tendency to confuse it with the Panavia Tornado (why do the British insist upon naming aircraft after Storms beginning with 'T'?)

http://www.ausairpower.net/typhoon.html

I learnt alot about the Typhoon here... :smok:

Seems to be optimised primarily for BVR offensive capability, as opposed to the F-22 which integrates defensive stealth technology. It certainly has improved BVR performance over the American Warbirds that we have seen the F-22 trump (F-15, F-18)... However whether this would be enought to detect the Raptor is... well... confidential

Below are some excerpts that draw comparisons with the two jets

Seems like the Raptor retains the lead

 

Can't find anything about that particular issue online, do you have a link?
Seems like it would be the kind of story that would make a pretty big splash and get lots of attention, if true. I have sen no mention of this incident in USAF publications either.

 

This is not the only link I can find - most that realte to articles seem to be before issue 15 so I guess if you want to read it then it's buy it or go to the library

http://www.airtimepublishing.com/airPower.phtml

 

As I wrote this incident could just be a lucky break, but the USAF weren't interested in pursuing it so for now it's not substansial enough to make news. And, sorry, I don't have a link, I get most my information from magazines and books (you know the old fashioned papery stuff ).

 

If this report is accurate this is rather more than a "lucky break" .

In other trials - front line fighters such as the F15 etc have failed to get a fix on the Raptor and have scored zero kills in extended combat tests (again if reports are to be believed). If the Typhoon can do what is described above it is clearly an extremely effective warplane at least rivaling the F-22. Actually the test described above (whilst I realise that this is in no way a definitive test and possibly not even true), viewed in complete isolation, shows the Typhoon to be a superior fighter.

PS. Before taking umbrage at that, please take note that I'm refering only to the results of this one very limited and somewhat unsubstantiated test.

 

Well, the Typhoon is optimized for BVR combat and have a very small frontal RCS, so it might not be much difference between them in head to head BVR engagement.

 

Do we really believe that test results are made public?
So whatever results may come out can we believe them...

 

One thing that was made briefly public and then never mentioned gain from MANY years ago was when the USN got their first squadron of F-14s worked up - they went visiting a USAF base that had F-15s. For fun the Eagle drivers decided they would bounce the Tomcats without warning and "prove" what a sierra hotel dog fighter the '15 was.
Unfortunately the Tomcats completely trashed the Eagles in a knife fight. USAF kept it rather quiet that the (supposed) world's number one fighter was beaten by the USN's long-range fleet defence missile-ship.
The only report I ever saw on that was tucked away in a copy of FLIGHT magazine (back in about '77) - and no further reports were printed that I saw... hmmm.

 

Once again I say the Tomcat pilots were superior. But it's still good to know that the jet made famous by Top Gun actually had something to boast about.

 

Maybe but with aircraft that good the pilot can often make the difference!

 

I honestly don't thnik you will too many Air Forces that would prefer the Typhoon over the F-22 given the choice. This is not to put down the Typhoon, but the F-22 is in another class (including cost!). These are the kinds of anecdotal stories that have been around for years, and they usually involve some measure of national pride.