August 29, 200817 yr Source Aviation News 17/06/2008 In spite of the Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 having been declared multi-role operationally capable from the beginning of July the Ministry of Defence stated that the Royal Air Force’s Panavia Tornado GR.4s are to assume a new mission from early next year, with the type to replace a detachment of BAE Systems Harrier GR.7/9 ground-attack aircraft that has been based at Afghanistan’s Kandahar airfield since November 2004. Announcing the move on 16 June, UK defence secretary Des Browne described Joint Force Harrier’s provision of close air support services in Afghanistan (below) as "Amongst the most potent of all our capabilities in deterring and denying the insurgency.” But noting: “I am very mindful of the strain that this extended deployment has put upon the crews, their families and the wider roles of Joint Force Harrier,” Browne said: “I have therefore decided to withdraw the Harrier force by spring 2009 and to replace them with an equivalent force of Tornado GR.4s.” The decision to deploy Tornados in the place of the Harrier confirms a move away from an earlier proposal to send the RAF’s new Eurofighter Typhoons to Kandahar. It also places added pressure on the service’s GR.4 community, which is currently manning a long-running commitment to support coalition operations in Iraq from Qatar’s Al Udeid air base. Informed sources state that the first deployment will be aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth but that all seven RAF Tornado GR.4 Squadrons will rotate in conjunction with their commitments at Al Udeid. It was suggested that this would be only a three-year commitment but that Harrier will in turn once again replace it. Typhoon looks increasingly unlikely to be deployed to the region and even at the media facility on July 1 to unveil Typhoon in its multi-role/swing-role capability answers to questions about its future deployment were tinged with waffle and ambiguity. Typhoon is however to be deployed to RAF Stanley, Falkland Islands, in the very near future taking over the QRA facility from RAF Tornado F.3s.
August 29, 200817 yr Author Source Aviation News 17/06/2008 In spite of the Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 having been declared multi-role operationally capable from the beginning of July the Ministry of Defence stated that the Royal Air Force’s Panavia Tornado GR.4s are to assume a new mission from early next year, with the type to replace a detachment of BAE Systems Harrier GR.7/9 ground-attack aircraft that has been based at Afghanistan’s Kandahar airfield since November 2004. Hopefully this might mean proper deployments in 2009 of UK Harriers on the Illustrious and Ark rather than being forced to embark Spanish and USMC AV8s to keep operational fixed wing carrier expertise honed..... Informed sources state that the first deployment will be aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth but that all seven RAF Tornado GR.4 Squadrons will rotate in conjunction with their commitments at Al Udeid. It was suggested that this would be only a three-year commitment but that Harrier will in turn once again replace it. Typhoon looks increasingly unlikely to be deployed to the region and even at the media facility on July 1 to unveil Typhoon in its multi-role/swing-role capability answers to questions about its future deployment were tinged with waffle and ambiguity. Typhoon is however to be deployed to RAF Stanley, Falkland Islands, in the very near future taking over the QRA facility from RAF Tornado F.3s. that should make a nice OOB difference for some 'what-if' Falklands 2 scenarios
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