Cold hard science – Exercise Snow Rider
No.41 TES is tasked with Typhoon capability expansion and tactics development, and agile combat employment is an ongoing focus – including to northerly latitudes.
Exercise Snow Rider saw the squadron deploying to Finland to hone its pilots’ skills in winter operations, while pushing and testing the Typhoon. Hard packed snow, icy runways and temperatures which were often below freezing, made conditions even more demanding. The primary aim of the deployment was challenging: to expand Typhoon’s capability to operate on runways with less surface friction.
Cold hard science was used to assess how well the Typhoon could be landed on icy surface conditions. Water was used to create a test strip of ice on the runway and 285 friction measurements were taken down the runway to facilitate the testing.
Flight Lieutenant Louis King, 41 TES Operations Officer, said that: “With the Finnish air being so dry, we had to create our own reduced friction surfaces by spraying water and letting it freeze. The Airfield Maintenance team would then drive their friction reader down the runway to get an accurate surface friction until we had obtained the correct conditions to test.”
The pilots and groundcrew of No.41 TES were hosted by the Finnish Air Force Academy, and Finnish Air Force personnel co-operated with QinetiQ and No.41 TES experts in undertaking the testing activities.
Air Marshal Alan Marshall, the RAF Air and Space Commander (the senior Royal Air Force war fighter responsible for the conduct of air operations at home and overseas), said: “Returning to Finland to work with our Finnish Air Force colleagues is always highly rewarding and valuable. They are adept and well-versed in the agile employment of air assets, particularly in cold weather conditions. Exercise Snow Rider has been a great success and once again demonstrated our capability to operate in all environments.”
