Message posted by Nimrod on August 22, 2006 at 21:19:39 PST:

From article dated 6 October 2005

Earlier this year, the Eurofighter Typhoon made its first transatlantic deployment. Under the 'Exercise High Rider' nickname, the UK's Air Warfare Centre (AWC) conducts routine trials work on the United States western ranges, taking advantage of significant overland airspace, good weather and instrumented range infrastructure to maximise operational test and evaluation output from these facilities.

Exercise High Rider 10 took place at the US Naval Air Weapons Range China Lake in California. Taking part in the deployment were the Harrier GR7 and Tornado GR4 aircraft of the AWC's Fast Jet and Weapons Operational Evaluation Unit (FJWOEU) based at RAF Coningsby and a Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft from the Typhoon combined test team.

The aircraft was deployed from BAE Systems Warton, crewed by a BAE Systems test pilot and a Typhoon Operational Evaluation Unit 17(R) Squadron pilot. BT005, a twin-seat series production aircraft, made the transatlantic crossing with the help of RAF VC10 and Tristar refuelling assets, before conducting an unaccompanied transit across the USA from Bangor Maine to China Lake, stopping to refuel at Little Rock Arkansas and Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico.

The Eurofighter Typhoon began flying again immediately after its arrival undertaking trials work to evaluate the aircraft's weapon system in an operational environment. Exercise High Rider 10 recovered to the UK at the end of the deployment.

Recently the flight testing of an upgraded standard of the Avionics product for Batch 2 Eurofighter aircraft has been completed, providing operational evaluations of the updates to the Avionics, in particular RADAR, DASS and Sensor Fusion. A total number of eight Eurofighter Typhoon flights (10 hours) supported the QU2 PSQS (Preliminary System Qualification Statement) (plus nine Tornado flights), and thirteen Typhoon flights (sixteen hours) supported the Customer OTC (Official Test Centre) Mission Assessment (plus nine Tornado and four Hawk flights).

The Weapon System was evaluated thoroughly with seven 2v2 (i.e. two Eurofighter Typhoons against two 'enemies') Sensor Fusion flights, one 2v4 (against four enemies) Sensor Fusion flight and five dedicated DASS flights designed to fully test the avionics. The overall performance was encouraging considering the aggressive operational testing conducted during the Mission Assessment, with the feedback from the operational pilots confirming their favourable impressions of the product.

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