The Rafale can carry the ASMP, a french nucular cruise missile and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Gripen could be upgraded such that it can do so as well.
Kay. Coming from Germany it is about the nukes of our … ehm… “friends”.
We still use the Tornado from 1974 because of incompabilities of our Eurofighters.
The difference is mainly that the UK has their own nuclear warheads, so adapting a plane that’s partially manufactured by them to those bombs is a pretty straightforward task that doesn’t require sharing of secrets with an increasingly hostile “ally”.
That’s just a guess from me, but since the UK has a domestic nuclear weapons programme, it would make a lot of sense to them to develop their own bombs and equip their own aircraft for dropping them.
A different part of the UK’s nuclear deterrent is awfully US dependent, though, they chose US made Trident ballistic missiles as carrier system for their submarine launched strategic warheads.
Dated March 2023 this article is not so explicit about Typhoon being capable 😬
So they bought the F-35 (but remanufactured the electroings much like Israel).
The Rafale can carry the ASMP, a french nucular cruise missile and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Gripen could be upgraded such that it can do so as well.
Kay. Coming from Germany it is about the nukes of our … ehm… “friends”. We still use the Tornado from 1974 because of incompabilities of our Eurofighters.
That is mainly because Germany does not want to give the US all the blueprints of Eurofighter, rather then it being technically impossible to do.
Might be the reason, but doesn’t change the situation. I heared the RAF Typhoons are years ahead and also able to carry nuclear bombs.
Anyhow flooding the zone with Mirrages, Rafaels, Gripen and Eurofighters would be nice 😊
The difference is mainly that the UK has their own nuclear warheads, so adapting a plane that’s partially manufactured by them to those bombs is a pretty straightforward task that doesn’t require sharing of secrets with an increasingly hostile “ally”.
Thanks for explaining. I was under the impression they can carry US made warheads, but this makes much more sense.
That’s just a guess from me, but since the UK has a domestic nuclear weapons programme, it would make a lot of sense to them to develop their own bombs and equip their own aircraft for dropping them.
A different part of the UK’s nuclear deterrent is awfully US dependent, though, they chose US made Trident ballistic missiles as carrier system for their submarine launched strategic warheads.
Dated March 2023 this article is not so explicit about Typhoon being capable 😬 So they bought the F-35 (but remanufactured the electroings much like Israel).
Does that matter though? e.g. if you do a nuclear strike, wouldn’t you bring enough support to make sure the nuke reaches its target?