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Description

The forecast crippling financial burden on the German economy after reunification led the ruling Christian Democratic Union to make an election pledge in 1990 to cancel the EFA project to help pay for the inevitable bailout and restructuring of East Germany. This was a bitter blow to Britain and Italy, both of which had pinned the future of their air forces on the type.
  There followed almost three years of German obfuscation as Bonn (and later Berlin) tried to wiggle out of a cast-iron binding contract the West German government had insisted on to prevent any other countries dropping out of the programme when France left to pursue the Rafale. As the BBC later put it, the Germans “had locked themselves into the project by a punitive penalty system of their own devising”. Eventually, with slowdowns on building the development airframes and endless demands for the German government to pay less, buy fewer aircraft and yet have a greater share of the work for its aerospace companies, the British government threw its collective hands in the air and agreed to cancel the whole thing. Legend has it that Malcolm Rifkind, the normally stoic British Defence Secretary, told his German counterpart to “stick it” and stormed out of a meeting on the project in Cologne.
  The main reason for this uncharacteristic display of irritation on Rifkind’s part in all probability stemmed from domestic political issues. German indecision on the EFA and the associated cost increases the delays were causing had become something of a cause celebre for Shadow Foreign Secretary and former Shadow Defence Secretary Harry Saxon. The government’s handling of the issue was being praised by Saxon as one more thing that would win Labour the next election, which probably led to the formal decision that was announced on 1 May 1993: the EFA project’s penalty clauses would be lifted and the UK was walking away.
  Immediately the member nations began looking at alternatives. The Germans were confident that a mix of ICE-upgraded F-4F Phantoms and ex-East German MiG-29’s modified to meet NATO standards would keep them going for a good few years, while Spain simply looked at ordering more F-18’s from the USA. Italy and the UK, on the other hand, were up a certain creek and lacking a paddle.

At least this was how it appeared to the casual observer. In reality, the UK government had entered into an agreement with the American DoD to jointly develop two new 5th-generation ‘stealth’ fighters to replace large swathes of their aircraft fleets. In the meantime, however, the RAF needed something to replace the recently-retired Phantom and ageing Jaguar forces.
  At the time of the EFA’s cancellation there were two other 4.5-generation fighter projects in development in Western Europe: the Dassault Rafale and Saab JAS 39 Gripen. Saab were looking to export significant numbers of Gripens to make up for the Swedish government’s planned cuts in domestic orders. British Aerospace, sensing an opportunity, teamed with Saab to offer the Gripen to the RAF.
  A dedicated British-spec Gripen was drawn up by the two companies. Compared to the original, the BAe Griffin, as it was known, would be powered by a British, rather than American, engine. Rolls-Royce had a further improved RB199 on the drawing board that would combine the improved fan stages of the Mark 105 used on the Tornado ECR with the enlarged reheat section from the Tornado ADV’s Mark 104, and this would put it in the same thrust class as the F404/RM12 engine of the Gripen. Other changes from the JAS 39A included imperial/nautical measurements on English language cockpit displays, provision for a bolt-on refuelling probe (replaced by an internal version on the JAS 39C, the definitive model), an onboard oxygen generation system and the installation of the UK-built Blue Vixen radar. After a pre-production Gripen put on a display at Farnborough in 1993 the MoD was sold on the proposal. Saab donated a prototype to the Royal Aircraft Establishment for engine and radar integration testing in January 1994, with a joint in-service date of 1996 planned for both the Swedish and British forces.

The Griffin FGR.1 and T.2 officially entered RAF service with No. 16(R) Squadron at RAF Wattisham on 16 June 1996, one week after the JAS 39A and B formally entered Swedish service. The type was built at BAe’s Warton facility from Saab-supplied kits and would eventually equip five operational squadrons, an OCU and a four-aircraft flight in the South Atlantic.
  The original plan had been to concentrate Griffin operations at Wattisham and Coltishall in southern England, but the decision was made to accommodate Tornado squadrons returning from Germany at Coltishall. Two squadrons of Griffins were deployed to Leuchars in Scotland, operating alongside the resident Tornado ADV fleet. The remaining three squadrons and the OCU would be based at Wattisham.
  The Griffin would see its combat debut over Kosovo early in 1999. TIALD-equipped aircraft from No. 41 Sqn at Wattisham operated from Gioa del Colle in Italy, in concert with No. 1 Sqn’s Harrier GR.7’s and several of the Germany-based Tornado squadrons flying direct with heavy tanker support. A 41 Sqn aircraft flying top cover for its brethren on the first night of operations claimed the RAF’s first air-to-air kill since World War II when it brought down a Yugoslav MiG-21bis with an AIM-120 AMRAAM.

While work on the EFA had halted in 1993, work on its engine had not. Rolls-Royce had continued to work on the XG.40 powerplant in concert with Fiat and MTU, with the intention of marketing it as an alternative to other small turbofans such as the RB199 and F404. The resulting engine became known as the Eurojet EJ200 and was selected as part of the planned Griffin mid-life update in 2001.
  The Griffin MLU was planned to add another ten years to the aircraft’s service life and keep it in the forefront of NATO operations over Afghanistan. Planned changes involved replacing the engine, with the more powerful EJ200 giving the aircraft supercruise capability. The Blue Vixen radar would be upgraded with a passive phased array antenna and additional air-to-ground modes, based on experience gained in Afghan combat operations. Improvements were also made to the Griffin’s radios, datalink and navigation systems, allowing the use of new recce pods that could transmit real-time intel through the aircraft’s own datalink.
  The Griffin FGR.3 and T.4 began entering service in 2004. This would remain the RAF’s primary dogfighter until its eventual replacement with the similar Excalibur 5th-generation fighter in 2021 after a quarter of a century.

Operators:
No. 6 Sqn, RAF Leuchars (2000-2021)
No. 16(R) Sqn, RAF Wattisham (1996-2020)
No. 41 Sqn, RAF Wattisham (1998-2021)
No. 54 Sqn, RAF Wattisham (2001-2021)
No. 56 Sqn, RAF Leuchars (1999-2020)
No. 74 Sqn, RAF Wattisham (1997-2021)
No. 1435 Flight, RAF Mount Pleasant (2001-2021)

*               *               *

You can see the rest of the stuff in this AU here: Saxonverse: the Premiership of Harry Saxon

Description

The forecast crippling financial burden on the German economy after reunification led the ruling Christian Democratic Union to make an election pledge in 1990 to cancel the EFA project to help pay for the inevitable bailout and restructuring of East Germany. This was a bitter blow to Britain and Italy, both of which had pinned the future of their air forces on the type.
  There followed almost three years of German obfuscation as Bonn (and later Berlin) tried to wiggle out of a cast-iron binding contract the West German government had insisted on to prevent any other countries dropping out of the programme when France left to pursue the Rafale. As the BBC later put it, the Germans “had locked themselves into the project by a punitive penalty system of their own devising”. Eventually, with slowdowns on building the development airframes and endless demands for the German government to pay less, buy fewer aircraft and yet have a greater share of the work for its aerospace companies, the British government threw its collective hands in the air and agreed to cancel the whole thing. Legend has it that Malcolm Rifkind, the normally stoic British Defence Secretary, told his German counterpart to “stick it” and stormed out of a meeting on the project in Cologne.
  The main reason for this uncharacteristic display of irritation on Rifkind’s part in all probability stemmed from domestic political issues. German indecision on the EFA and the associated cost increases the delays were causing had become something of a cause celebre for Shadow Foreign Secretary and former Shadow Defence Secretary Harry Saxon. The government’s handling of the issue was being praised by Saxon as one more thing that would win Labour the next election, which probably led to the formal decision that was announced on 1 May 1993: the EFA project’s penalty clauses would be lifted and the UK was walking away.
  Immediately the member nations began looking at alternatives. The Germans were confident that a mix of ICE-upgraded F-4F Phantoms and ex-East German MiG-29’s modified to meet NATO standards would keep them going for a good few years, while Spain simply looked at ordering more F-18’s from the USA. Italy and the UK, on the other hand, were up a certain creek and lacking a paddle.

At least this was how it appeared to the casual observer. In reality, the UK government had entered into an agreement with the American DoD to jointly develop two new 5th-generation ‘stealth’ fighters to replace large swathes of their aircraft fleets. In the meantime, however, the RAF needed something to replace the recently-retired Phantom and ageing Jaguar forces.
  At the time of the EFA’s cancellation there were two other 4.5-generation fighter projects in development in Western Europe: the Dassault Rafale and Saab JAS 39 Gripen. Saab were looking to export significant numbers of Gripens to make up for the Swedish government’s planned cuts in domestic orders. British Aerospace, sensing an opportunity, teamed with Saab to offer the Gripen to the RAF.
  A dedicated British-spec Gripen was drawn up by the two companies. Compared to the original, the BAe Griffin, as it was known, would be powered by a British, rather than American, engine. Rolls-Royce had a further improved RB199 on the drawing board that would combine the improved fan stages of the Mark 105 used on the Tornado ECR with the enlarged reheat section from the Tornado ADV’s Mark 104, and this would put it in the same thrust class as the F404/RM12 engine of the Gripen. Other changes from the JAS 39A included imperial/nautical measurements on English language cockpit displays, provision for a bolt-on refuelling probe (replaced by an internal version on the JAS 39C, the definitive model), an onboard oxygen generation system and the installation of the UK-built Blue Vixen radar. After a pre-production Gripen put on a display at Farnborough in 1993 the MoD was sold on the proposal. Saab donated a prototype to the Royal Aircraft Establishment for engine and radar integration testing in January 1994, with a joint in-service date of 1996 planned for both the Swedish and British forces.

The Griffin FGR.1 and T.2 officially entered RAF service with No. 16(R) Squadron at RAF Wattisham on 16 June 1996, one week after the JAS 39A and B formally entered Swedish service. The type was built at BAe’s Warton facility from Saab-supplied kits and would eventually equip five operational squadrons, an OCU and a four-aircraft flight in the South Atlantic.
  The original plan had been to concentrate Griffin operations at Wattisham and Coltishall in southern England, but the decision was made to accommodate Tornado squadrons returning from Germany at Coltishall. Two squadrons of Griffins were deployed to Leuchars in Scotland, operating alongside the resident Tornado ADV fleet. The remaining three squadrons and the OCU would be based at Wattisham.
  The Griffin would see its combat debut over Kosovo early in 1999. TIALD-equipped aircraft from No. 41 Sqn at Wattisham operated from Gioa del Colle in Italy, in concert with No. 1 Sqn’s Harrier GR.7’s and several of the Germany-based Tornado squadrons flying direct with heavy tanker support. A 41 Sqn aircraft flying top cover for its brethren on the first night of operations claimed the RAF’s first air-to-air kill since World War II when it brought down a Yugoslav MiG-21bis with an AIM-120 AMRAAM.

While work on the EFA had halted in 1993, work on its engine had not. Rolls-Royce had continued to work on the XG.40 powerplant in concert with Fiat and MTU, with the intention of marketing it as an alternative to other small turbofans such as the RB199 and F404. The resulting engine became known as the Eurojet EJ200 and was selected as part of the planned Griffin mid-life update in 2001.
  The Griffin MLU was planned to add another ten years to the aircraft’s service life and keep it in the forefront of NATO operations over Afghanistan. Planned changes involved replacing the engine, with the more powerful EJ200 giving the aircraft supercruise capability. The Blue Vixen radar would be upgraded with a passive phased array antenna and additional air-to-ground modes, based on experience gained in Afghan combat operations. Improvements were also made to the Griffin’s radios, datalink and navigation systems, allowing the use of new recce pods that could transmit real-time intel through the aircraft’s own datalink.
  The Griffin FGR.3 and T.4 began entering service in 2004. This would remain the RAF’s primary dogfighter until its eventual replacement with the similar Excalibur 5th-generation fighter in 2021 after a quarter of a century.

Operators:
No. 6 Sqn, RAF Leuchars (2000-2021)
No. 16(R) Sqn, RAF Wattisham (1996-2020)
No. 41 Sqn, RAF Wattisham (1998-2021)
No. 54 Sqn, RAF Wattisham (2001-2021)
No. 56 Sqn, RAF Leuchars (1999-2020)
No. 74 Sqn, RAF Wattisham (1997-2021)
No. 1435 Flight, RAF Mount Pleasant (2001-2021)

*               *               *

You can see the rest of the stuff in this AU here: Saxonverse: the Premiership of Harry Saxon