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"Finland has the best armaments in Europe in the AIM-120C-7, AIM-9X and JASSM

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"Finland has the best armaments in Europe in the AIM-120C-7, AIM-9X and JASSM

Old 15th Apr 2020, 12:11
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"Finland has the best armaments in Europe in the AIM-120C-7, AIM-9X and JASSM

Finland’s State-owned public media group YLE has published an article by Timo Keränen about the various HX contenders.


See:

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11296429

The piece is based on interviews with two (long-retired) Finnish Air Force commanders. The article strongly supports the procurement of a US fighter type, but offers some very odd justifications for taking that position!

Heikki Nikunen, Commander of the Air Force in the early 1990s, when the current Hornet fleet was selected, is quoted as favouring the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, saying that: “The F-35 is clearly the fighter of the future and has certain features that the threat environment does not have the capabilities of defeating” and opining that “Stealth is of great importance in air combat.”

While low observability to radar (LO or Stealth) does provide a powerful advantage, particularly in the strike role, when penetrating contested airspace, there is a growing belief that its usefulness is being eroded. There is a growing recognition that an aircraft relying on stealth may not easily adapt to face changing threats (counter Stealth technologies, low frequency and bistatic radars, IR/EO-based detection and tracking systems, etc.), and that advanced reprogrammable electronic warfare capabilities may represent a more useful, more responsive and more adaptable approach to ensuring survivability. This is sometimes referred to as ‘digital stealth.’

Interestingly, the most advanced air forces have all moved away from a future CONOPS based solely on the use of stealth aircraft to one that uses a mix of stealthy and non-stealthy fighters. The USA, UK, Australia and Italy all plan to operate the F-35 in conjunction with legacy fighter types, with both bringing real operational advantages to the table. Eurofighter’s Typhoon and Dassault’s Rafale are both seen as being key pillars of the next generation Anglo-Italian and Swedish FCAS and Franco-German-Spanish SCAF programmes, operating alongside advanced fighters now being defined and developed. This contradicts Ahola’s ill-founded belief that “no one can afford to develop new ones and keep old ones up to date.”

According to YLE, Nicunen's successor, Matti Ahola, made the extraordinary claim that Finland has the best armaments in Europe in the shape of its ageing AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM, and AIM-9X Sidewinder air to air missiles, and the admittedly newer JASSM air-to-surface missile. He reportedly urged that these must be retained after the retirement of the current Hornets. YLE quotes Ahola as saying that “An American missile can only be integrated into an American fighter,” and that while the “technical installation of missiles on any fighter is somehow possible”, “in practice they do not work on European fighters.”

These are both utterly nonsensical claims.

The idea that the AIM-120C-7 represents the ‘best in Europe’ is the kind of deluded and grandiose posturing that we might expect from Donald Trump, when the superior Meteor is in service with several European air arms, on Typhoon, Rafale and Gripen. Nor does AIM-9X really represent ‘superiority’ when compared to the more agile IRIS-T and the longer range ASRAAM. While the AGM-158 JASSM is an impressive stand-off weapon, it lacks the range and ‘firepower’ of Storm Shadow, KEPD-350 and Apache.

The claim that American missiles can only be integrated onto an American fighter is baffling. Both the AMRAAM and the Sidewinder are already integrated on the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Gripen, and they work JUST FINE, though they are generally acknowledged as being inferior to Meteor, IRIS-T and ASRAAM! There is no technical reason why they could not also be integrated on Rafale, if required, though the French aircraft’s Mica offers some compelling advantages. Nor would there be any technical reason why JASSM could not be integrated on any of the European HX candidates, though each already has superior stand off missiles integrated and operational.

Ahola reportedly calculates that the existing weapons will need replacing in the first half of the 2040s, and that “Finland must therefore consider which country will be able to supply the best weapons to the fighters in use at that time.” It’s hard to predict what future weapons will be integrated on which fighter, but today, Rafale and Typhoon have a range of extremely effective advanced weapons options, and further weapons, including MBDA’s innovative SPEAR family and a number of anti-ship missiles are being integrated.

Ahola claims that the weapons carried by a fighter form approximately two thirds of its capability, because they need to be guided from the aircraft for most of its flight. If that is the case, then it would be remiss of the Finnish Air Force not to take into account the increased capabilities of the advanced, repositioner equipped AESA radars offered on both the Gripen E/F and the Eurofighter Typhoon, which are a generation ahead of the radars used by the other candidate fighters.

Though they favour the procurement of a US fighter type, Heikki Nikunen and Matti Ahola unwittingly highlighted some of the problematic aspects of a potential F-35 buy.

Ahola “considers it essential that Finland receives all the information it needs about the maintenance and repair of the fighter”, and has said that Finland needs “a clearly higher level of capability than in other user countries” in this area. He also highlighted the importance of “Finnish knowhow” and warned about “trusting outside support too much in times of crisis.”

Nikunen, meanwhile, believes that it is important that “Finnish professionals know the fighters through and through, especially their complicated electronics.”

The US has proved extremely unwilling to allow F-35 operators to have meaningful operational sovereignty when it comes to maintenance and repair, and, even more importantly, mission data. Even the UK, a privileged F-35 customer and the programme’s only Level One partner, has been unable to establish an autonomous, in-country mission data re-programming facility.

Aerospace Analysis and Insight (A2&I) believes that the F-35 does not meet Finnish requirements on security of supply (the ability to operate autonomously) nor for domestic industrial participation. We would also be surprised if Lockheed Martin were able to provide a meaningful fleet size, and all of the required infrastructure, within the HX programme’s ambitious €10 Bn cost cap. Moreover, while the F-35 is a peerless strike fighter, it may be less well suited to the counter air role that Colonel Juha Pekku Keränen, HX programme manager, has described as the primary HX mission. The Eurofighter Typhoon may be better suited to safeguarding the integrity of Finland's air space, and to protecting Finland against air attacks. If German plans to acquire more Eurofighters to replace its ageing Tornados, the production line will remain open for several more years, and confidence in continuing upgrades and long term support will be enhanced.

Of the other HX contenders, we believe that the Super Hornet lacks the required performance to meet Finnish requirements, and could struggle to achieve an acceptable exchange ratio against a developed ‘Flanker’ threat. Support may also be problematic during the latter part of the aircraft’s planned service life.

Saab’s Gripen E is an interesting aircraft, and Saab are likely to offer a compelling package of operational sovereignty, local industrial participation, offsets and co-operation with the Swedish Air Force for training and operations. It remains to be seen whether the aircraft is judged adequate to meet operational requirements.

The Dassault Rafale is a superb, versatile strike fighter, and would deserve consideration. A2&I understands that it is seen as an outsider in the HX context, however.

Jackonicko is offline  
Old 15th Apr 2020, 15:24
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I don't know about Heikki Nikunen but Matti Ahola has been on the Board of Directors for Finnish military/industrial complex companies post his military service so it's not surprising he's in favour of "the importance of “Finnish knowhow” and "not trusting outside support"

As usual - follow the money..................
Asturias56 is offline  
Old 15th Apr 2020, 15:32
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Do you work for (or have an affiliation with) A2&I?
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Old 15th Apr 2020, 17:43
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I don't (if you're asking me) but I occasionally have worked in Helsinki. The Finns normally get quite a good bang for their buck on military hardware within a limited budget but they do have some very specific and (by NATO standards) different challenges.

Historically they've always seemed to have based their strategy on just being a tough mouthful to chew - they know that they could never beat the Russians but they could give them a serious headache.

For combat aircraft the cost/dispersal/range/numbers/threat is so different to other countries its hard to make a meaningful comment IMHO
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