Eurofighter Typhoon from RAF’s (Fighter) Squadron have been taking part in Spears of Victory — a multi-national air training exercise organised by the Royal Saudi Air Force in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During the exercise — which is smaller in scale but similar in complexity to the US-led Red Flag exercise — the RAF Typhoons flew daily sorties. In total over 60 aircraft took part, including Eurofighter Typhoons, Tornados and F-15s from the host Royal Saudi Air Force. The Royal Air Force of Oman was also represented flying their Typhoon. In addition, there were squadrons from Pakistan, Greece, the UAE and France, while the US supported the action by providing Air to Air Refuelling capability.
RAF Squadron Leader Hodgkinson, the UK Detachment Commander, said: “This was an extremely important training opportunity for everyone who deployed. Both for the force enablers who had the opportunity to work alongside strategic partners in the region as well as the fighter pilots who were carrying out the missions. “The pilots and aircrew on this multinational exercise were able to build relationships through shared experiences.”
During the sorties, the pilots conducted air operations against a simulated adversary. They carried out a wide range of training mission including, defensive counter-air and offensive counter-air operations, as well as air interdiction training against both live and simulated threats. The exercise required a large training area and the King Abdulaziz Air Base, Dhahran, located near the Gulf coast in Saudi’s east was ideal, providing a training area covering around 300 sq km.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, supersonic, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. Thee Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH. The first RAF production aircraft to take to the air was ZJ800 (BT001) on 14 February 2003, completing a 21-minute flight. The first operational RAF Typhoon squadron to be formed was No. 3 (Fighter) Squadron on 31 March 2006, when it moved to RAF Coningsby. The Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.Mk 4 is a highly capable and extremely agile multi-role combat aircraft, capable of being deployed for the full spectrum of air operations, including air policing, peace support and high-intensity conflict.
