I thought the plane had fired the red kite :P
Any idea how many typhoon will carry? will be great if like x16 :D
Different motor isn’t it? I have no clue tbh
Entirely new motor and potentially a better battery (iirc though, there was an argument to get the Brimstone 1s battery life increased on the grounds that the Brimstone 2 has much longer range but doesnt appear to get any battery upgrade)
The range should increase by about 200%. So it should reach around 60km with a good launch. But its the short range performance which should be notably improved, with far better Time to target on those shorter range shots which are actually practical with a SAL only weapon.
I dont know if the Brimstone 2 does loft better or not though, or if that is something that comes with the Brimstone 3
Its also not entirely clear which gets Prox fuse, Brimstone 2 or 3, but I think its the 3
3 Likes
Depends what rack they put it on. I’d suggest given its a similar form-factor to Stormbreaker its probably 3 or 4 per rack, on at least one rack per side.
MBDA are supposedly self-funding the SPEAR 3 Typhoon racks so I can see them adapting Red Kite to fit on those for simplicity.
(MoD and BAE were doing their own ages ago that was supposed to be a multi-purpose rack with either I think 4 x spear-3 or 2 x Paveway IV or 2 x Meteor but that seems to have fallen through).
1 Like
It is identical form factor as it’s using the Stormbreaker casing and wing-kit but the electronics and internal components are going to be 95% British + 5% from European markets.
So most probably 4 per rack unless they go for a longer rack to have more on.
1 Like
better TtT and Proxy Fuze would be superb upgrades over OG one, but i doubt Gaijin will be that good for britain
“random plane” smh.
IIRC nothing has confirmed the UK are actually buying it yet though
Curious what UK seeker it’s supposed to have.
GBU-53/B (SBD-II) has an expensive and complex tri-mode thing that seems to go against the ethos of Red Kite being low-cost and high-volume.
In many ways the render resembles Boeing’s GBU-39B/B Laser-SDB, which is basically just the LJDAM seeker on a GBU-39/B (SDB-I) airframe
The US have earmarked GBU-39B/B for MQ-9 Reaper, so we might want something similar but sovereign for Protector RG.1 (MQ-9B), to go along with the UK’s Paveway IV and Brimstone 3 that are now cleared for Protector.
The article states that Red Kite is currently not expected to have a datalink, so that kind of rules out it using any Imaging seeker mode with MITL.
2 Likes
I suspect its just a SAL/IOG/GPS version of StormBreaker. Raytheon UK is the Paveway IV manufacturer so they have the SAL/IOG/GPS stuff in house.
1 Like
First look at BAE’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the Brontanax.
https://www.baesystems.com/en/article/first-british-designed-collaborative-combat-aircraft-unveiled
https://www.baesystems.com/en/product/brontanax
1 Like
top profile shot is cool. The name however…
4 Likes
Yeah the name is weird, apparently means Thunder King in Greek which is even worse to be honest.
Could have just called it Thunder keeping with the RAF’s current combat fighter fleet being weather related named, Typhoon and Lightning. Would have fit better.
4 Likes
typa name you give to a dinosaur
2 Likes
Not even a big cool one either like one of those little gremlin type dinosaurs.
Bro xD
10/10
Or maybe the same seeker from the Spear-Glide?