French Airforce -vs- Royal English Airforce

French Airforce -vs- Royal Airforce(uk) - who would win?

  • Royal Airforce wins!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • They are equal!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other - write it up!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1

ullu

New Member
I wanted to make french go against Uncle Sam, but lets start from the same continent before moving on. ;)

French Airforce vs RAF(UK).

Who would win?

I say, French would win with their Rafales, jaguars and Mirages.

What does RAF have? Tornados?

Rafales:

The Rafale can carry payloads of over nine tons on 14 hardpoints for the Air Force version, and 13 for the naval version. The range of weapons includes Mica, Magic, Sidewinder, ASRAAM and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles; Apache, AS30L, ALARM, HARM, Maverick and PGM100 air-to-ground missiles; and Exocet/AM39, Penguin 3 and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. For a strategic mission, the Rafale can deliver the MBDA (formerly Aerospatiale) ASMP stand-off nuclear missile. Main weapons are expected to be the MBDA (formerly Matra BAe Dynamics) MICA air-to-air missile, MBDA Storm Shadow/Scalp EG stand-off cruise missile and the MBDA (Aerospatiale) AS 30 laser-guided missile.

Mirages:

Mirage 2000 has nine hardpoints for carrying weapon system payloads: five on the fuselage and two on each wing. The single-seat version is also armed with two internally mounted, high-firing-rate 30mm guns.

Air-to-air weapons include the MICA multi-target air-to-air intercept and combat missiles, and the Magic 2 combat missiles, both from MBDA (formed out of a merger between Matra BAe Dynamics, EADS Aerospatiale and Alenia Marconi Systems). The aircraft can carry four MICA missiles, two Magic missiles and three drop tanks simultaneously. The Mirage 2000-5 can fire the MBDA Super 530D missile or the MBDA Sky Flash air-to-air missile as an alternative to the MICA missile.

Mirage 2000 is also equipped to carry a range of air-to-surface missiles and weapons including laser-guided bombs. These include the MBDA BGL 1000 laser-guided bomb, MBDA AS30L, MBDA Armat anti-radar missile, MBDA AM39 Exocet anti-ship missile, MBDA rocket launchers, MBDA Apache stand-off weapon, and the stealthy cruise missile, SCALP. The Mirage 2000-9 aircraft ordered by the United Arab Emirates carries the Black Shahine missile being developed by MBDA. The MBDA Storm Shadow/Scalp EG stand-off cruise missile will arm French AF Mirage 2000D, Greek Mirage 2000-5 and UAE Mirage 2000-9 aircraft when it enters service in 2003.


Tornados:


The F3 Air Defence Variant (ADV) Tornado is armed with short-range and medium-range air-to-air missiles. A typical weapons payload would include four Sidewinder short-range missiles and four Skyflash medium-range missiles. Tornado F3 aircraft are the first to be fitted with the short-range MBDA ASRAAM air-to-air missile which entered service in January 2001 and was declared ready for operational deployment in Spetember 2002. 100 RAF F3 Tornadoes are being upgraded to carry AIM-20 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, a Raytheon IFF 4810 SIFF (Successor Identification Friend or Foe) system and a Honeywell laser inertial navigation system. EADS selected I-Logix's Statemate MAGNUM as the systems engineering tool for RWE and the new computing facility. The upgrade programme is to be completed in 2003.

What do you think?
 

Winter

New Member
There are several factors to consider, possibly some of which we can ignore in the interests of a strictly airborne campaign. Unfortunately I am not familiar with the French OrBat....

- Permeneant USAF presence in the United Kingdom.
- Navy: - Both sides Fleet Air Arms.
- Related items, such as deployed vessels, e.g. The Royal Navy's fleet of Type 42 Air Defence Destroyers.
- Don't both countries have an integrated air defence? Possibly the UK does, under Strike Commmand...Including:
- As mentioned before, the Tornado F3 Air Defence aircraft.
- The United Kingdom has an AWACS squadron.
- The UK RAF Regiment, which still deploys Rapier SAM companies.

All in all, it would depend with who hit first and where. In my opinion, the current state of affairs as it is, a full reinforced strike with surprise could quite possibly cripple the opposite.
 

Red aRRow

Forum Bouncer
Well if it's just a one on one between the air wings... w/o America jumping in and other possiblities..then I would have to go with the French, but by a very narrow margin.
 

ullu

New Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4
I know, US has habit budding in but I was talking about PURE RAF vs FAF with their own planes.
 

corsair7772

New Member
Verified Defense Pro
France Wins!!!! bring out the french wine and french fries and toast our succes due 2 our rafaels and mirages mostly!!!!
 

Oqaab

New Member
UK might win. Because US and other allies will be supporting UK. Also, we have seen the rude behaviour of US to France over the Iraq issue ...
 

Winter

New Member
The German army is quite powerful with over 250,000 men though it suffers little in the way of power projection...There is also the the slight obstacle of The English Channel to think about....This leaves the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe as the only forces to be brought against the UK, though both not quite as advantageous as the Bundeswehr in numbers...

The incapacitated Russian military would be strangled at the GIUK Gap and in the North Sea though the threat remains with their few operational long-range assets...
 

ullu

New Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #9
Thanks for the replies. This thread is about UK and french AIR FORCES no army and no other nation helping either british or french. ;)
 

Winter

New Member
Well, both forces have an extensive strike capability, but neither nation has the non-nuclear power to destroy the other (MAD), especially in a head-to-head protracted war. So, as I said before, whoever strikes first could forever keep the other side handicapped, fighting on one leg, so to speak... :roll
 
A

Aussie Digger

Guest
I think it would be an absolute massacre with both sides completely devastated. The economic cost would be astronomical for both sides regardless of the result. I think with both sides being nuclear powers, if a side was being badly beaten, but for some reason was determined to fight on, then Western Europe would be in a lot of trouble... I'd say without claiming any particular expertise that the British would win eventually, particularly if we're talking some future scenario and the British had the Eurofighter and JSF operational. I REALLY don't think this will ever happen though, the cost would be too high to benefit from going to war, even if they "won".
 

Londo Molari

New Member
Right now, the French air force has the upper hand.

Once the Eurofighter is fully inducted into the RAF, then it would get interesting.
 

gf0012-aust

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
The French haven't won a battle in absolute terms since 1870 - thats a fantastic track record compared to the Brits.

Chirac himself has said that Britain IS Europes military power. That in istelf should be a big enough clue.

France a close fight? Like WW1 and WW2 they would need :help within 40 days of any offensive commencing.

My money is on the Brits, you can rely on them, they have a persistent track record in force on force conflicts.

5000 armed french soldiers landing on the Ivory Coast is not a wonderful example of french capability - neither is Dien Bien Phu (even though 70% of the french troops were german, they were led by french officers who were using french tactics)
 

Awang se

New Member
Verified Defense Pro
I think the brits has a very impressive record when they beat back the germans in the battle of britain.
 
Top