Royal Air Force: Who Needs Guns?

The Royal Air Force's new Typhoon fighters -- which entered air-defense service this month -- are fitted with German-designed 27-millimeter cannons, but the pilots receive no training on the weapon and the service hasn't even bought any ammunition. "Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshall Sir Glenn Torpy, insisted that the RAF does not believe there is a need for the gun for air-defence duties," Jane's reports.

(Contrast this with the World War II Typhoon fighter, which was a top-notch gunfighter.)

When the RAF drew up requirements for its new Typhoons, it foresaw Cold War-style missile duels against high-tech fighter jets. So Typhoon managers planned to fill the aircraft's gun bay with concrete to save cash. After a year of Iraq operations in 2004, the RAF changed its mind and swapped in real cannons, just not with ammo or training. (Note that linked Telegraph article incorrectly states that ammunition was issued.)

Torpy explained to Parliament the reasoning behind the decision:

"Our thinking up to now on the Typhoon gun has been that we will not require it because of the advances in short-range missiles and various other tactics and techniques and procedures, but we could get to a situation which we have not foreseen where we will require it. Well, we have a gun in Typhoon and we are not planning to fire it because it would cost us quite a bit more money in terms of ground support equipment, fatigue on the air-frame and so on, but if we decided that actually we did need it for something, we could bring it into operation in very short order, so we have complete flexibility as far as the Typhoon gun is concerned."

And good thing, too, because next year the Typhoon will deploy to Afghanistan for its combat debut. And in Afghanistan, as in Iraq, guns are often the weapon of choice for close air support missions. Last year I was embedded with a Marine fighter squadron in western Iraq that used its guns frequently. One female pilot even gleefully described literally chasing down insurgents with gunfire as they fled an engagement. Former fighter pilot Richard Lewis explains the gun revival in Air Force Magazine:

We’re using the gun quite a bit in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations. The fighters are using lots of 20 millimeter off F-15Es and F-16s and 30
millimeter off A-10s to hit ground targets. Why is that? For individuals, the gun is probably one of the most accurate weapons, with the least collateral damage. That 20 millimeter will end the bad guy’s life, but stray rounds will just drive into the ground, and that’s it.

But strafing is dangerous: Lewis reports that an F-16 pilot died during a gun run in Iraq last year.

The only aircraft required to strafe in the Cold War was the A-10, and for good reason. It was the only aircraft built to endure the hazards of strafing against Warsaw Pact forces. We have all seen aircraft in the movies, diving at the ground, guns blazing, while people on the ground are running to take cover. That’s not how it really is. Once the fighter enters the low-altitude environment, the pilot is subject to multiple threats; he faces not only surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery but also handheld heat-seeking missiles and automatic gunfire.

Is there more to the RAF's anti-gun bias than saving cash? Is the service frightened of exposing its pricey new jets to the dangers of low-level gunplay? Janes
says the RAF is strongly considering activating the Typhoon's gun for
Afghanistan, so maybe I'm way off base. But consider that the Typhoon is at least as valuable to the RAF as the F-22 is to the U.S. Air
Force. Can you imagine the Air Force risking its $300-million Raptors to gun down Taliban fighters?

No, said Dozer, a Raptor pilot, in a recent online discussion:
"We don't practice strafe and, in my opinion only, I don't think that's a wise use of this aircraft. Doesn't mean you can't figure it out in an emergency, but I don't see it as a mission we'll practice."

Related:
Marine fighters in Iraq
Marine fighters video part one and part two
First-ever F-22 "shot down"

Cross-posted at War Is Boring