Warton, United Kingdom - The first ever release of a Paveway IV precision guided bomb from a Typhoon aircraft, using the avionics system to safely release the weapon, has been achieved in an hour long test flight over the Aberporth Range in Wales. The integration of Paveway IV demonstrates a commitment to enhance and upgrade Typhoon’s capabilities in its ground attack role and forms part of the Typhoon Future Capability Upgrade.
Typhoon Test Pilot Nat Makepeace, who was at the controls of development aircraft IPA6, said: “This was a successful test flight demonstrating the avionics system is able to use global positioning system (GPS) data and target information sourced from the aircraft to prepare for the release. All communication with the aircraft and safe release of the bomb went to plan.”
Paveway IV is a highly accurate, precision guided bomb capable of significantly minimising collateral damage. It is low cost and will provide Typhoonpilots with the very best technology for operations with its all-weather, day and night precision capability.
The test is part of an ongoing programme to integrate Paveway IV onto the aircraft and builds on the environmental and jettison trials which have already been performed.
Paveway IV is expected to be provided to the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) early in 2012 when the RAF will start operational evaluation.
This work further demonstrates the systems integration capabilities of the BAE Systems Typhoon team. These skills are essential for the continued development of the Typhoon aircraft. The team is working closely with the MOD, the Eurofighter partner nations and Raytheon on this development programme.
Paveway IV is the next generation guided weapon selected by the UK Ministry of Defence for the Precision Guided Bomb (PGB) programme. In an environment where time sensitive targeting remains fundamental to success, Paveway IV provides the ultimate in operational flexibility. The combat proven dual-mode guidance, together with height of burst and penetrating capability in one weapon system, enable the decision of target engagement to be made right up to the point of release.
Paveway IV has been successfully integrated onto the Harrier GR9/9A and Tornado GR4 and under contract is being integrated onto Typhoon and Joint Combat Aircraft. It expands the boundaries of traditional laser guided weapons and also exceeds the range of rival GPS guided bombs. The enhanced launch zone increases both weapon effectiveness and platform survivability.
USS MOUNT WHITNEY, Mediterranean Sea (AFNS) -- Two crew members ejected from their U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle when the aircraft experienced equipment malfunction over northeast, Libya, March 21, at approximately 5:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
Both crew members ejected and are safe.
The aircraft, based out of Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, was flying out of Aviano Air Base in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn at the time of the incident.
The cause of the incident is under investigation.
The identities will be released after the next of kin have been notified.
Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn is the U.S. Africa Command task force established to provide operational and tactical command and control of U.S. military forces supporting the international response to the unrest in Libya and enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1973. UNSCR 1973 authorizes all necessary measures to protect civilians in Libya under threat of attack by Qadhafi regime forces.
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. (AFNS) -- Airmen piloting three B-2 Spirits returned to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., after striking targets in Libya in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn.
The B-2s returned after a more than 25-hour mission in support of the international response to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya.
The B-2s employed 45 guided joint direct attack munitions, each weighing 2,000 pounds, against hardened aircraft shelters in Libya, officials said.
A no-fly zone was imposed by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, authorizing military action in order to ensure the protection of the Libyan people and compliance with the conditions of UNSCR 1973.
Airmen assigned to the 608th Air Operations Center here coordinated four aerial refuelings for the B-2s during the mission, officials said. The Airmen coordinated the transition of command and control between Global Strike Command and U.S. Africa Command as the aircraft flew from the continental U.S. to African air space and back, officials said.
The goal of coalition strikes is to reduce the Libyan regime's ability to defy the no-fly zone and to enhance protection of coalition air forces charged with implementing it.
TRIPOLI: Western forces hit targets along the Libyan coast on Saturday, using strikes from air and sea to force Muammar Gaddafi's troops to cease fire and end attacks on civilians.
Libyan state television said 48 people had been killed and 150 wounded in the allied air strikes. It also said there had been a fresh wave of strikes on Tripoli early on Sunday.
There was no way to independently verify the claims. French planes fired the first shots in what is the biggest international military intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles in the region of the rebels' eastern stronghold, Benghazi.
Hours later, US and British warships and submarines launched 110 Tomahawk missiles against air defences around the capital Tripoli and the western city of Misrata, which has been besieged by Gaddafi's forces, US military officials said.
They said US forces and planes were working with Britain, France, Canada and Italy in operation "Odyssey Dawn".
Gaddafi called it "colonial, crusader" aggression. "It is now necessary to open the stores and arm all the masses with all types of weapons to defend the independence, unity and honour of Libya," he said in an audio message broadcast on state television hours after the strikes began.
China and Russia, which abstained in the U.N. Security Council vote last week endorsing intervention, expressed regret at the military action. China's Foreign Ministry said it hoped the conflict would not lead to a greater loss of civilian life.
Explosions and heavy anti-aircraft fire rattled Tripoli in the early hours of Sunday. The shooting was followed by defiant shouts of "Allahu Akbar" that echoed around the city centre.
Libyan state television showed footage from an unidentified hospital of what it called victims of the "colonial enemy". Ten bodies were wrapped up in white and blue bed sheets, and several people were wounded, one of them badly, the television said.
Tripoli residents said they had heard an explosion near the eastern Tajoura district, while in Misrata they said strikes had targeted an airbase used by Gaddafi's forces.
A Reuters witness in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi reported loud explosions and anti-aircraft fire, but it was unclear which side was shooting.
The intervention, after weeks of diplomatic wrangling, was welcomed in Benghazi with a mix of apprehension and relief.
"We think this will end Gaddafi's rule. Libyans will never forget France's stand with them. If it weren't for them, then Benghazi would have been overrun tonight," said Iyad Ali, 37.
"We salute France, Britain, the United States and the Arab countries for standing with Libya. But we think Gaddafi will take out his anger on civilians. So the West has to hit him hard," said civil servant Khalid al-Ghurfaly, 38.
GADDAFI SEEN LOSING GRIP ON LIBYA
The air strikes, launched from a flotilla of some 25 coalition ships, including three US submarines, in the Mediterranean, followed a meeting in Paris of Western and Arab leaders backing the intervention.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said participants had agreed to use "all necessary means, especially military" to enforce the Security Council resolution calling for an end to attacks on civilians.
"Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen," British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters after the meeting. "We cannot allow the slaughter of civilians to continue."
Some analysts have questioned the strategy for the military intervention, fearing Western forces might be sucked into a long civil war despite a US insistence -- repeated on Saturday -- that it has no plans to send ground troops into Libya.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested that outside powers hoped their intervention would be enough to turn the tide against Gaddafi and allow Libyans to force him out.
"It is our belief that if Mr. Gaddafi loses the capacity to enforce his will through vastly superior armed forces, he simply will not be able to sustain his grip on the country."
But analysts have questioned what Western powers will do if the Libyan leader digs in, especially since they do not believe they would be satisfied with a de facto partition which left rebels in the east and Gaddafi running a rump state in the west.
One participant at the Paris meeting said Clinton and others had stressed Libya should not be split in two. And on Friday, Obama specifically called on Gaddafi's forces to pull back from the western cities of Zawiyah and Misrata as well from the east.
"It's going to be far less straightforward if Gaddafi starts to move troops into the cities which is what he has been trying to do for the past 24 hours," said Marko Papic at the STRATFOR global intelligence group.
"Once he does that it becomes a little bit more of an urban combat environment and at that point it's going to be difficult to use air power from 15,000 feet to neutralize that."
The Libyan government has blamed rebels, who it says belong to al Qaeda, for breaking a ceasefire it announced on Friday.
In Tripoli, several thousand people gathered at the Bab al-Aziziyah palace, Gaddafi's compound bombed by US warplanes in 1986, to show their support.
"There are 5,000 tribesmen that are preparing to come here to fight with our leader. They better not try to attack our country," said farmer Mahmoud el-Mansouri.
"We will open up Libya's deserts and allow Africans to flood to Europe to blow themselves up as suicide bombers."
US SAYS NOT LEADING INTERVENTION
France and Britain have taken a lead role in pushing for international intervention in Libya and the United States -- after embarking on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- has been at pains to stress it is supporting, not leading, the operation.
In announcing the missile strikes, which came eight years to the day after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Obama said the effort was intended to protect the Libyan people.
"Today I authorised the armed forces of the United States to begin a limited action in Libya in support of an international effort to protect Libyan civilians," Obama told reporters in Brasilia, where he had begun a five-day tour of Latin America.
He said US troops were acting in support of allies, who would lead the enforcement of a no-fly zone to stop Gaddafi's attacks on rebels. "As I said yesterday, we will not, I repeat, we will not deploy any US troops on the ground," Obama said.
But despite Washington's determination to stress its limited role, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the US military's Joint Staff, said the strikes were only a first phase.
Earlier on Saturday, hundreds of cars full of refugees fled Benghazi towards the Egyptian border after the city came under a bombardment overnight. One family of 13 women from a grandmother to small children, rested at a roadside hotel.
"I'm here because when the bombing started last night my children were vomiting from fear," said one of them, a doctor. "All I want to do is get my family to a safe place and then get back to Benghazi to help. My husband is still there."
Those who remained set up make-shift barricades on main streets, each manned by half a dozen rebels.
In the besieged western city of Misrata, residents said government forces shelled the rebel town again early on Saturday, while water supplies had been cut off for a third day.
