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RAF Shoot Down a Drone 14 December


JohnT

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without details on the engangement specific, it ist still a good, real live proof of Eurofighter - ASRAAM capability against slow and low flying targets! 

:thumbsup:

 

small drone usually do not have a very high IR signature I assume!

although also no IR countermeasures usually  of course! ;)

 

 

definitely a better show of capability than the Aim-9X that was fooled by a Su-22'S flares? some years ago!

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5 hours ago, GMK said:

The RAF’s first ever air to air missile kill?

No, we managed to shoot down one of our own Jaguars in Germany back in the 1980's 🤣. Did any of the Harrier GR.3s claim any A2A kills during the Falklands?

 

Duncan B

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£200K missile?

Hmm.. Depends on what they mean by a 'small' drone.

 

I gave my son a small drone last Christmas. It cost £150. If you wanted you could stick a small transponder on it for a few quid. 

I hope ISIS or whoever doesn't start putting lots of cheap drones in the air to get zapped at £200K a time....  

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50 minutes ago, Macsporran said:

£200K missile?

Hmm.. Depends on what they mean by a 'small' drone.

 

I gave my son a small drone last Christmas. It cost £150. If you wanted you could stick a small transponder on it for a few quid. 

I hope ISIS or whoever doesn't start putting lots of cheap drones in the air to get zapped at £200K a time....  

 

I suppose the answer is drone versus drone, but I've been reading that the technology needed to create an effective hunter killer isn't quite there. Air to ground is apparently a lot easier.

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12 minutes ago, IanC said:

 

I suppose the answer is drone versus drone, but I've been reading that the technology needed to create an effective hunter killer isn't quite there. Air to ground is apparently a lot easier.

The answer is MANPAD. New solutions are slow in coming due to neglect, but remain the best defence against light drones.

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1 hour ago, Duncan B said:

No, we managed to shoot down one of our own Jaguars in Germany back in the 1980's 🤣. Did any of the Harrier GR.3s claim any A2A kills during the Falklands?

 

Duncan B

RAF pilot/s flying Sea Harriers scored missile kills in the Falklands - surely that would count as the first RAF missile kill.

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This is officially the first RAF Air to Air Kill operationally ( not counting the Jaguar in Germany ( I was stationed at RAF Wildenrath at the time) since 1948 when RAF Spitfires shot down an Egyptian Spitfire.  In the same war Israeli Spitfires shot down RAF Spitfires

 

RAF Pilots attached to the USAF scored air to air kills flying Sabre's in Korea.

 

RAF Pilots flying with the FAA on Sea Harriers scored kills over the Argentinian Air arms in fact the top scorer in that war was I think Flt Lt Morgan,

 

But RAF Pilots manning RAF Aircraft this is the first since 1948 

Edited by TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED
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10 minutes ago, TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED said:

This is officially the first RAF Air to Air Kill operationally...since 1948

The question was regarding missile kills, though...

8 hours ago, GMK said:

The RAF’s first ever air to air missile kill?

I think it counts.

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Presumably some sort of kill marking will be applied to the Typhoon?

 

A gun kill would have been much more cost effective, but (1) Do RAF Typhoons have guns? and (2) a gun engagement against such a small target might be problematic. 

Edited by Slater
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7 minutes ago, Slater said:

Presumably some sort of kill marking will be applied to the Typhoon?

 

A gun kill would have been much more cost effective, but (1) Do RAF Typhoons have guns? and (2) a gun engagement against such a small target might be problematic. 

RAF Typhoons should have a gun, a working one. (There was discussion though when introducing them to delete or not service it.... :( )

 

2 minutes ago, Basosz said:

Did the RAF not shoot down any Iraqi aircraft in either of the Gulf Wars then? Or was that all on the USAF?

and USN Hornets + RSAF Eagles as far as I know.

and do not forget the Iraqi Airforce MiG-25 that shot down a US Hornet

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4 hours ago, Macsporran said:

£200K missile?

Hmm.. Depends on what they mean by a 'small' drone.

 

I gave my son a small drone last Christmas. It cost £150. If you wanted you could stick a small transponder on it for a few quid. 

I hope ISIS or whoever doesn't start putting lots of cheap drones in the air to get zapped at £200K a time....  

 

I doubt that the one shot down was a £150 drone, I'd expect something larger. Not that the IS have not used very small drones, they have used a lot of cheap commercial drones but these are generally engaged differently and would be impossible targets for a fighter aircraft.

Regarding the relative costs, £200k against likely a very few thousand may sound a lot but really what matters is the kind of damage that the threat can pose, regardless of the monetary cost of the threat. Recent wars have seen a wide use of expensive ammunition against "low cost" targets, but the same targets have also caused serious damage to very expensive equipment, not to mention the value of the human lives lost.

There's also the matter of the relative impact of the cost of the materials, it may well be that the RAF can afford more missiles at £200k apiece than the IS can afford drones.

 

9 hours ago, busnproplinerfan said:

I thought Syria was done.

 

Looks like Syria is today one of the many "mission accomplished" that turned out to not have been accomplished at all...

 

 

4 hours ago, Alan P said:

Not very cost effective but a pretty good hit. Shame they let the other one get away, but IS definitely got the message.

 

IS should have got the message a while ago considering that they have suffered way more than the loss of a drone... still, they don't seem to give up

 

3 hours ago, IanC said:

 

I suppose the answer is drone versus drone, but I've been reading that the technology needed to create an effective hunter killer isn't quite there. Air to ground is apparently a lot easier.

 

There are a number of other technologies that can destroy or stop drones and several devices designed for this job are currently used by armed services and police forces.

 

 

 

Edited by Giorgio N
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If it's a small drone flying quite low, I'd imagine that an experienced hunter or trap/skeet shooter with a 12 gauge shotgun might score a kill. The ultimate in cost effectiveness :D

 

In the Iraq/Afghanistan unpleasantness, US forces have used obscenely expensive Javelin missiles to target individual snipers, so the will to use the weapons at hand is there (although such use brought some questions/concerns from higher authority, IIRC).

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7 hours ago, Macsporran said:

Hmm.. Depends on what they mean by a 'small' drone.

Yes, Global Hawk has a wingspan greater than a 737 - by comparison a Predator or Reaper (both of which are capable of carrying Hellfire missiles) could be classified as a "small drone" and a commercial camera drone would be "tiny" The Drones that attacked the tanker Mercer Street off Oman earlier this year weren't particularly big but did significant damage, killing 2 on the ship. 

All things are relative, and one would presume the powers that be determined the threat justified the response.

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5 hours ago, Slater said:

If it's a small drone flying quite low, I'd imagine that an experienced hunter or trap/skeet shooter with a 12 gauge shotgun might score a kill. The ultimate in cost effectiveness :D

 

In the Iraq/Afghanistan unpleasantness, US forces have used obscenely expensive Javelin missiles to target individual snipers, so the will to use the weapons at hand is there (although such use brought some questions/concerns from higher authority, IIRC).

Hmm very good you volunteering? Better to knock out the opposition by stand off means as opposed to putting personnel in direct line of fire....much safer all round....unless you are on the recieving end.What do you think 🤔 0

Edited by junglierating
Spellin'
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8 hours ago, Duncan B said:

No, we managed to shoot down one of our own Jaguars in Germany back in the 1980's 🤣. Did any of the Harrier GR.3s claim any A2A kills during the Falklands?

 

Duncan B

Okay, first *deliberate* & *combat* air to air missile kill?

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2 hours ago, Slater said:

 

In the Iraq/Afghanistan unpleasantness, US forces have used obscenely expensive Javelin missiles to target individual snipers, so the will to use the weapons at hand is there (although such use brought some questions/concerns from higher authority, IIRC).

UK & Australian forces did the same in Afghanistan. 

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