Royal Bahrain Air Force GlobalFighter Typhoon FGR.4

GlobalFighter Typhoon FRG.3

a/c 7985, 1st Fighter Wing (1 or 2 Squadron - aircraft pooled with no unit badges, Royal Bahraini Air Force

Isa Air Base, Bahrain, July 2019

 

 

The 1950 Red Revolution in Britain and Europe dramatically changed the geopolitical situation in the Person Gulf. Britain, once a dominant imperial force in the region, was now represented by the exiled British Loyalists who had neither the will nor the means to provide diplomatic or military cover to its many protectorates. Threatened by their larger and more powerful neighbours (Iran and Saudi Arabia) and divided by their own rivalries, these protectorates turned to the United States to fill the gap left by Britain. This resulted in a series of treaties and declarations of independence through the early and mid-1950s underwritten by growing US power and influence in the region.

 

The island state of Bahrain declared its official independence from Britain on 15 August 1953. The Bahrain Defense Force established an Air Wing in 1958 and in 1960 its inventory included Bell OH-13E helicopters, Cessna O-1A Bird Dog light planes and 2 C-47B transports. The Air Wing’s first fighters were Indian-built F-86F Sabres. There were 2 fighter squadrons by 1970, one flying Northrop F-5A/B Freedom Fighters and the other Indian-built Mirage IIIEBHR/DBHRs. The F-5A/Bs were replaced by F-5E/Fs during the 1970s and these were replaced by F-20A/B Tigersharks during the 1980s (the surviving F-5A/Bs being sold to Turkey and the F-5E/Fs to Iraq). The Mirages were replaced by F-16A/B Block 15 Fighting Falcons in the ‘80s and were built by HAL in India. HAL upgraded the surviving F-16s (plus 16 ex-USAF F-16As to make up for attrition and to expand the fleet) to F-16AM/BM Block 20 MLU status during the 1990s. Later, the F-20A/Bs went through Singapore Aerospace’s Tigershark PLUS upgrade program, adding AIM-120 AMRAAM capability and the company’s own Grifo-F radar.

 

Bahrain selected the GlobalFighter Typhoon to replace the aging F-16s in 2009. 32 Tranche 3 Typhoon TFGR.3 (two-seat, combat-capable trainers) and FGR.4 (single-seat multi-role fighters) were acquired, the aircraft coming off HAL’s production line. The GlobalFighter Typhoon “swing-role” 4.5 generation fighter was developed and built by a consortium that included Australia, Brazil and India. Tranche 1 Typhoons entered service with all three nations in 1998, these aircraft being optimised for the air-to-air role and offering only an “austere” air-to-surface capability. Tranche 2 aircraft entered service in 2003, finally providing most of the long-promised advanced multirole features, including full integration of targeting and reconnaissance pods, a wide range of air-to-surface weapons and the fuselage-mounted PIRATE FLIR/IRST. More advances were introduced with Tranche 3, available from 2012, with the Tranche 2 planes being upgraded to Tranche 3 standards from 2016. Bahrain’s Typhoons were delivered between 2014 and 2019.

 

The Typhoon was selected in part to disperse Bahrain’s supply chain and to complement the Alttayaran Fi Alkhalij F-16G/H Al'alfiat Alssaqr (Arabic for Millenium Falcon) it had already ordered to replace the F-20s in 2004. A financial and technical partner of the Alttayaran Fi Alkhalij (Gulf Aviation) program since 1996, Bahrain was concerned by its perceived Pakistani domination and supported the establishment of the Al'alfiat Alssaqr In-Kingdom Final Assembly (AAIKFA) plant in Saudi Arabia, where all of Bahrain’s Al'alfiat Alssaqrs were assembled. This way, Bahrain could maintain its close relations with India while also supporting its fellow members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

 

A member of the United Nations (UN) from the time of its independence, Bahrain mostly offered diplomatic and logistical support to UN operations during the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, its operations being confined to local security tasks in the region of the Persian Gulf. It supported Iraq during the 1980-1990 Iran-Iraq Gulf War and actively engaged in the UN’s blockade of Iran during the course of the war. When that war ended with Iraq’s defeat and occupation by Iran, Bahrain was a committed member of the UN’s defensive Operation Desert Shield and the subsequent liberation of Iran (and of Kuwait, a neutral nation which had been occupied by the retreating Iraqi army in August 1990). While the F-20s conducted defensive counter-air operations, the F-16s were used for offensive fighter and bombing missions. The F-20s were active in the counter-insurgency (COIN) warfare that followed the UN liberation and occupation of Iraq. Meanwhile, the F-16s were devoted to UN operations over the Gulf and its enforcement of the Iranian blockade and of the no-fly zone (and later demilitarised and no-drive zones) established inside Iranian airspace and territory intended to secure UN activities in the region. A decades-long pattern of mounting COIN, air defence and Protective Reaction Strikes against Iran, its agents and a plethora of Sunni Jihadi groups throughout the Middle East continued into the 2020s; and by then, the Royal Bahraini Air Force (renamed in 1967) was flying combat missions over the Gulf, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen with the Al'alfiat Alssaqr and Typhoon.

 

This GlobalFighter Typhoon FGR.4 is depicted as it was photographed in July 2019. It is armed with 4 AIM-120D AMRAAMs and 2 IR-guided ASRAAMs for counter-air combat. It carries a single GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb and 2 GBU-38 JDAM GPS/INS-guided bombs for air-to-surface combat. On the centreline pylon is an AN/AAQ-28(V7) RecceLite pod for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work. It was photographed taking off in this configuration alongside its wingman, which had a similar loadout but with an AN/AAQ-28(V6) Litening SE targeting pod. The particulars of the pair’s mission remain classified, suffice to say that public information indicates that Bahraini Typhoons were involved with ongoing regional UN operations over the Gulf, Iran, Iraq and Syria and that missions were often subject to dynamic tasking.

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