Finland Begins Testing Replacements for Dated Hornet Fleet
(Source: Finnish Broadcasting Corp., YLE; issued Jan 09, 2020)
Finnish pilots will today begin kicking the tyres on the Eurofighter Typhoon jet in trials due to last until the end of February. Finland aims to take the new fighter fleet into use between 2025 and 2030. (Finnish AF screen grab)
Each of the five short-listed manufacturers will bring their aircraft to Finland for a week of flight tests at the Satakunta Air Command in Pirkkala, in the Tampere region. The field tests will run until the end of February.
The first fighter jet up for assessment is the Eurofighter Typhoon, followed by Lockheed Martin's multi-purpose F-35 combat aircraft and Boeing's F/A 18 Super Hornet.
The #HXChallenge has begun. The first candidate to undergo tests in Finland will be the Eurofighter Typhoon. Two Royal Air Force Eurofighters arrived at Pirkkala Air Base on Thursday 9 January. #finaf #satlsto pic.twitter.com/MgJLBAdnUc
— Ilmavoimat (@FinnishAirForce) January 9, 2020
Interesting... HX Programme Director tells me that AIM-9X, AMRAAM, and JASSM are NOT mandated: "if we did that, we wouldn't have a fair competition". I asked if they were ready to change pretty much all their air delivered weapons: "yes we are". @byMBDA
— Francis Tusa (@FTusa284) January 10, 2020
French firm Dassault's Rafale and Swedish Saab's Gripen E round out the contenders to replace the fleet of fighter jets.
Finland has sent all five manufacturers follow-up invitations to tender bids to completely replace the current Hornet fleet. Their responses are expected by the end of January.
A final binding invitation to tender will be sent out later this year and the government will make a purchasing decision in 2021. The aim is to commission the new fleet between 2025 and 2030.
The total estimated cost of the acquisition has been pegged at between seven and 10 billion euros, excluding lifetime costs such as spare parts and maintenance.
The original Hornet fleet was purchased in 1992 and will be phased out by 2025.
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Eurofighter Jets Arrive At Pirkkala For Top Gun Tests
(Source: NewsNow; posted Jan. 09, 2020)
Two Eurofighter Typhoon jets have touched down at Pirkkala Air Force Base to start two weeks of intensive testing and evaluation.
They’re the first of five aircraft types which will arrive in Finland in the coming weeks, as the Air Force weighs up the pros and cons of each in the process to determine which company will win the €10 billion contract to replace the country’s ageing fleet of Hornet jets.
Model of representative Typhoon for Finland. Meteor, of course, Storm Shadow when Finland has JASSM..? And ASRAAM when Finland operates, today, AIM-9X? Might one see a major change if Typhoon were to win? #HX #finnishairforce @byMBDA pic.twitter.com/7A9HMcOMEs
— Francis Tusa (@FTusa284) January 10, 2020
The Eurofighters are from Britain’s Royal Air Force 41 Squadron, the RAF’s fast jet test unit equipped with Typhoon aircraft and based in Lincolnshire.
The aircraft will take part in simulated long-term war games, where the candidate jets will play their roles as part of Finland’s defence systems. In the simulated battles they’ll face the Air Force’s current F/A-18 Hornets and Hawk jet trainers.
The Air Force says the event is taking place in Finland so that each plane can be tested under Finnish winter operating conditions – and also to provide a balanced evaluation for each of the five candidate aircraft.
The other contenders taking part in ‘Operation HX Challenge’ are America’s Lockheed Martin F-35 and Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet; France’s Dassault Rafale; and Sweden’s Saab Gripen
Although all the aircraft are designed to operate in sub-zero temperatures, the challenges come when the temperatures hover around freezing with snow, sleet or freezing drizzle throwing extra challenges at the jets. Harsh weather conditions can have an impact on the performance of electro-optical sensors in particular.
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