Eurofighter Typhoon DA.2: Birth of a Modern British Legend

[Would you like to see this in-game?]
  • Yes but only with Trailed weapons (ASRAAM/ AIM-9L)
  • Yes but with full Possible Loadout (AMRAAM also)
  • No
0 voters

Hello and welcome to my suggestion for the First ever British Eurofighter, the Typhoon DA.2! I feel this has a strong reason to come to game and give Britain a Top tier fighter aircraft in the near future without overpowered weapons like the AIM-120.

History

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The story of the Eurofighter is a very long one and I will not be covering it in this suggestion, I have covered it in my Tranche 1 Eurofighter suggestions to a degree so I suggest you look there for more info on the overall development of the Typhoon.

As the Eurofighters development came towards its end in the 1990s a series of Development Aircraft were built, know as the DA series. The first Development Eurofighter was the German made DA.1 and was used for Flight performance and, much later in its life, IRIS-T trials. The second Development Aircraft was the British Made DA.2, unlike the Previous DA.1, which lacked any sort of advanced weapons integration until much later in life, the DA.2 featured everything a Production Eurofighter would carry, including the ECR-90 pulse doppler radar and full weapons firing capabilities, from the start.

The DA.2 was first rolled out in 1993 at BAe Warton, making its first flight in April the following year. It was first displayed in public at the Paris Air show at Le Bourget shortly after being outfitted with a full Avionics and Software upgrade, Flying in on the 9th of June and leaving on the 13th.

During its Life the DA.2 performed a variety of Trials, including AIM-9 and ASRAAM trials, and most notably it was covered with 490 Pressure transducers to evaluate the stress put on the airframe with various External Fuel tanks and Air to Air missiles loadouts.

Whilst the DA.2 never carried or Fired Live AMRAAMs it can often be seen carrying a loadout of 2 or 4 dummy missiles, it is worth noting that the Aircraft was fully capable of Firing the Missiles as it had all of the Avionics required to use them, however Radar missiles Evaluations were not part of the DA.2s testing scheme, being tested on later DA and IPA Airframes.

Another Thing worth noting is that the DA.2 had two more major differences to later Typhoons, initially it was Outfitted with the Tornados RB-199 engines as a stopgap until the EF-200 engines were available, and the DA.2 also had provisions for two Countermeasures launchers mounted under the Fuselage compared to production Eurofighters ones under the wings.

Photos

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Picture Taken during the DA.2s first flight, Note the AIM-9Ls mounted on its wings

DA.2 on display at the RAF Museum at Hendon, shown in its Late Black Camoflage

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DA.2 with 4 Dummy AMRAAMs mounted on the Fuselage

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DA.2 Taxiing at what I believe to be RAF Marham

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DA.2 after being rolled out at BAe Warton in 1993

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DA.2 on display in 2002, AMRAAMs, ASRAAMs and Brimstones mounted on the wings (Note as far as I’m aware the Early model Eurofighters were incompatible with the Brimstones so they are purely for display)

DA.2 in flight Circa 1996, note the AIM-9Ls and AMRAAMs

Specs/ Armament

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General characteristics

  • Crew: 1
  • Length: 15.96 m (52 ft 4 in)
  • Wingspan: 10.95 m (35 ft 11 in)
  • Height: 5.28 m (17 ft 4 in)
  • Wing area: 51.2 m2 (551 sq ft)
  • Empty weight: 11,000 kg (24,251 lb)
  • Gross weight: 16,000 kg (35,274 lb)
  • Max takeoff weight: 23,500 kg (51,809 lb)
  • Fuel capacity: 4,996 kg (11,010 lb) / 6.215 l (1.642 US gal; 1.367 imp gal) internal
  • Powerplant: 2 x RB199 Engines, later 2 × Eurojet EJ200 engines

Performance (EJ200)

  • Maximum speed: 2,125 km/h (1,320 mph, 1,147 kn) / Mach 2.0 (2,125 km/h or 1,320 mph at 11,000 m altitude)
  • 1,530 km/h (950 mph; 830 kn) / Mach 1.25 at sea level (1,530 km/h or 950 mph)
  • Supercruise: Mach 1.5
  • Range: 2,900 km (1,800 mi, 1,600 nmi)
  • Combat range: 1,389 km (863 mi, 750 nmi) Air defence with 10-min. loiter / Ground attack, hi-lo-hi (with 3 × external 1,000 l tanks)
  • 185 km (100 nmi) Air defence with 3-hr combat air patrol (with 3 × external 1,000 l tanks)
  • 601 km (325 nmi) Ground attack, lo-lo-lo (with 3 × external 1,000 l tanks)
  • Ferry range: 3,790 km (2,350 mi, 2,050 nmi) with 3 × drop tanks
  • Service ceiling: 19,812 m (65,000 ft)
  • g limits: +9 / -3
  • Rate of climb: 315 m/s (62,000 ft/min)
  • Wing loading: 312 kg/m2 (64 lb/sq ft)
  • Thrust/weight: 1.15 (interceptor configuration)
  • Brakes-off to Take-off acceleration: <8 s
  • Brakes-off to supersonic acceleration: <30 s
  • Brakes-off to Mach 1.6 at 11,000 m (36,000 ft): <150 s

Armament

  • 1 x Mauser BK-27 Revolver Cannon (150 Rounds)
  • Various Fuel Tanks of either 1000 or 1500 litres capacity
  • Up to 4 ASRAAMs on wing pylons
  • Up to 4 AIM-9Ls on wing pylons
  • Up to 4 AMRAAMs on Fuselage Pylons (Only inert ones ever carried)
  • Up to 2 AMRAAMs on inner Wing pylons (Only mock-up Missile carried)
  • Up to 4 Skyflashes on Fuselage Pylons (possible, but were never fitted nor Trailed, however could come as a Stopgap until ARH missiles are added or as a slight bump in performance for a Eurofighter without AMRAAMs)
  • Paveway Guided bombs (Unconfirmed but most likely would be possible as have been mounted on the DA.2)

Avionics

  • ECR-90 Pulse doppler Radar
  • PIRATE Tracking equipment

Place in game

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In game I feel that the DA.2 could come alongside other Nations Development Aircraft to allow for a less capable Airframe to come before the Later Tranche 1 Typhoons with all the bells and whistles. The DA.2 as it is would not be that out off place in game right now (In my opinion) as it does not have AESA radar and the only Overpowering factors are its missiles.

I propose that this aircraft come to the British Tech Tree after the Tornado F.3 as it is a pure Fighter version of the Eurofighter and would bring a competitive Top tier fighter in the near future, probably at around 13.0/13.3.

Sources

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Eurofighter Typhoon variants - Wikipedia
Eurofighter Typhoon - Wikipedia
Turbo-Union RB199 - Wikipedia
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documents/collections/X004-6167-TYPHOON-DA2.pdf
Eurofighter Typhoon DA-2 with Sidewinders and Panavia Tornado engines - Great Britain - War Thunder - Official Forum
Eurofighter Typhoon / EF-2000
ZH588 Eurofighter Typhoon DA2 | ZH588 Eurofighter Typhoon DA… | Flickr

5 Likes

typhoon mk2 with amraam…maybe 13.0 or 13.3

so about the g limits…
did it get the +9 -3 (± some overshoot apparently) of the production unit or was it kept at lower Gs

because im reading right now that, at least initially, it did up to 3.5g.

As far as im aware it was capable of the same +9, -3 limits as production eurofighters, however it was most likely limited in tests to avoid incidents, there have been several cases of unrestricted tests resulting in crashes, Hawk 200 and Sea Vixen come to mind.

I dont see why it shouldnt get said G limits unless you have a source to back it up?

Some screenshots of the DA.2 firing Air to Air missiles

Screenshot_20231227_212941_YouTube

Either ASRAAM or AIM-9 (vid is too low quality to be sure)

Screenshot_20231227_212914_YouTube

AMRAAM being fired from the aircraft (DA.4, but the specs are very similar)

Source is @galaxygms who showed me this video

2 Likes

to continue this, the AMRAAM firing is the DA4, the what i’d say is the sidewinder firing is the DA2
hard to see but i’d say it has the EJ200s here. RB199s dont go as far back(EJ200s go all the way to the end of the drag chute housing and thats what it appears to look like in this video)

also asraam is smokeless, this missile isnt so its most definitely a sidewinder

+1

properly a aim9L(i)

no idea if britain had those and even if, they might just use legacy 9Ls because they’re cheaper and have the same characteristics…

We had unlocked AIM-Ls with a far greater range, might be than

Tornado F3 did, so definetly some in stock

My quick question here is this: if Gaijin opted for the Skyflash fit, is there any evidence to suggest specifically a SuperTEMP was ever fitted? I’m aware SuperTEMP was optimised for Tornado, but I fear that it’d be essentially useless to take Skyflash DF.

I’ve only been able to find talks of test firing ASRAAMs.

I personally wouldn’t mind what weaponry it came with, DA.2 looks fun.

1 Like

Its possible. and if we are stuck with SARH, Id hope gaijin would just make an exception to give us at least manageable SARH. An 11.3 SARH at 12.7 is already a bit of an insult. Really wouldnt want them at 13.3

1 Like

As i stated in the specs, the fireflash was never fitted was never intended to be fitted (as AMRAAM was expected to be ready by the time eurofighter was out). Although the ECR-90 was fully compatible with the previous SARH missiles like skyflash and Sparows

1 Like

It would be nice to join the game with Aim-9Ls/Ms first (and if Aim-120s will be added, to become an option later on as top-tier armament). But I am curious about countermeasures and ground ordnance, since I see no mention for them on your post.

I didn’t know the ECR-90 had a CW illuminator. Is it then different from Captor-M?

Would an increase in G-Limits for the FBW perhaps be asossciated with its carefree handling trials?

possibly

Off the top of my head (i am currently away from home and cant 100% confirm) it had two countermeasure pods under the fuselage between the two rear fuselage hard points, you can kind of see in the pic above the two dispenser between the two rear AMRAAM.

Again off the top of my head it had the same countermeaure pods as the jaguar so most likely up to 60 flares/chaff

2 Likes