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Sunday, November 22, 2009

UAE hosts first mock dogfights for F-22, Typhoon, Rafale







By Stephen Trimble

The United Arab Emirates not only attracted the Lockheed Martin F-22 to the Dubai air show, but also staged perhaps the first mock dogfights between F-22s, Dassault Rafales and Eurofighter Typhoons.



In parallel with the air show, the advanced tactical leadership course at Al Dhafra air base near Abu Dhabi hosted a five-nation fighter exercise, says the UK Royal Air Force.



France, the UK and the USA each sent six of their top-line fighters to the exercise, and those were joined by jets from the UAE and Pakistan. The Abu Dhabi manoeuvres marked the first publicly known event where the F-22 met Europe's two most advanced fighters.


The Rafale previously flew against USAF Boeing F-15Cs during the Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB in August 2008. The USAF, however, withheld the F-22 from the Red Flag manoeuvres, which also included South Korean Boeing F-15Ks and Indian air force Sukhoi Su-30MKIs.


Multinational exercises provide air forces the rare opportunity to become exposed to the tactics, capabilities and limitations of countries using rival equipment.

3 comments:

does anyone know what was the result of the dogfights and how do the 3 fighters compare ? any info ?

Flightglobal also claims that the F-22s were withdrawn from the exercise on short notice. Apart from that I would be careful to call such exercises "dogfights"...Red Flag certainly is not a dog fight exercise.

Beyond that, F-22s and Eurofighters met before, in the US, where RAF units were deployed on a number of occasions. No information ever leaks through as to the outcome of such encounters, I dont expect anything to leak out this time, if those fighters really met up in any kind of exercise.

F22 superior in BVR
Typhoon, with HMSS, in WVR
Rafale has better multirole performance.

Just my guesses.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet_mounted_display

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