Libya: RAF Typhoons carry out first attack on Gaddafi forces

13 Apr 2011

RAF Typhoon fighters have carried out their first attack on Muammar Gaddafi's forces in Libya, the Ministry of Defense has confirmed.

A Typhoon, patrolling with a RAF Tornado GR4, hit two Libyan T72 main battle tanks with laser-guided Paveway II bombs near the besieged city of Misurata.

Air Vice Marshal Phil Osborn said that the Tornado attacked a third tank with a Paveway IV bomb - taking to eight the number tanks hit by RAF aircraft yesterday.

It is the first time the Typhoon - formerly known as the Eurofighter - has fired its weapons in anger in the ground attack role since entering service with the RAF.

AVM Osborn rejected reports that the RAF had insufficient Typhoon pilots trained in the ground attack role to mount operations in Libya.

The Typhoon was originally introduced as an air defense fighter and a recent National Audit Office report disclosed that only eight pilots had so far received ground attack operations.

AVM Osborn acknowledged that the full Typhoon ground attack capability would not be available until 2015, but said that they had enough for the current mission in Libya.

''We have sufficient Typhoon aircrew to undertake the task with the appropriate training for the systems and weapons carried by the aircraft, whether air-to-air or air-to-ground munitions,'' he told an MoD press briefing in London.

''We take very seriously what we are asked to do. We wouldn't deploy a capability if we couldn't support it and we weren't able to execute it in the way that you would expect the RAF to execute it, which is in a proportionate, disciplined, reliable way.''

The RAF has designated Typhoons operating from Gioia del Colle in southern Italy for ground attack operations in Libya alongside 12 Tornado GR4s. Together they account for a quarter of the ground attack force available to NATO.

William Hague, the foreign secretary, attending a meeting in Qatar of the international contact group on Libya, has been pressing other NATO members to deploy more aircraft to the operation.

Source: The Telegraph.
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8448292/Libya-RAF-Typhoons-carry-out-first-attack-on-Gaddafi-forces.html.