1)
WVR combat is only small spectrum of air combat.
Yes, and no – it mainly depends on numbers, and who you are shooting at. As enemy numbers, as well as quality of each pilot and aircraft, increase relative to BVR-oriented force, effectiveness of BVR missiles drops – while qualitatively and quantitatively superior air force might achieve per-missile probability of kill as high as 50% for BVR missiles (against non-maneuvering enemies with no jammers), BVR missiles have never achieved more than 10% per-missile Pk against force that has been comparable in all stated factors – and it must be kept in mind that BVR-oriented aircraft are always more complex (and thus both more expensive, and flying less often) than WVR-oriented ones.
In short, BVR combat is excellent when facing enemies you don’t need it against, but doesn’t work when needed most.
2)
German Typhoons had helmet-mounted sights and this allowed them to dominate more maneuverable F-22
Incorrect. Exercise was held in June 2012, and only from
July on did German Typhoons start getting HMD. As such, Typhoons at Red Flag had to point their nose at the F-22s to get a lock.
That can easily be confirmed by comparing helmets of Typhoon pilots at exercise:
http://cencio4.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/closeup1.jpg
http://cencio4.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/df_3029_neuburg_18-07-12.jpg
with HMD one:
http://www.defenceweb.co.za/images/stories/AIR/Air_new/Eurofighter_typhoon_helmet.jpg
which can be seen to be less round.
3)
Typhoon’s IRST can detect F-22 from 50 kilometers
While that claim might not be incorrect – and indeed most likely isn’t – it has no relation to exercise itself, as Luftwaffe Typhoons
had no IRST.
(Photo is of Typhoon from exercise,
same one which “bagged” three F-22 “kills”).
4)
Typhoons were slicked-off
While Typhoons did not carry any missiles or tanks in exercise, Typhoon does have a number of hard points that are permanently attacked to an airframe. In any case, heaviest – BVR – missiles would be ejected, and even some WVR missiles expended, well before Typhoons got in the merge. Neither F-22 or Typhoon had missiles.
Grune’s exact words are:
“We pulled off all the tanks to get most Alpha on it (Typhoon), and it is an animal with no tanks”.
5)
F-22s were performance-limited
One of claims I have found was that F-22′s maneuver envelope has been limited due to oxygen problems. However, performance limitations to F-22 have only been enforced some time after the exercise, and pilots also had their oxygen vests, which have only been removed a week after exercise itself.
6)
F-22s BVR capabilities were “overwhelming”
That claim, while not incorrect, was not about Typhoon vs F-22 exercise, but was a comment on earlier exercises where F-22s and Typhoons worked together against agressor F-16s simulating threat aircraft – most likely Cold War era Su-27 and MiG-29, as USAF has no reliable data on newest Russian types. As such, effectiveness of simulated BVR missiles in such exercises is far overstated even beyond unrealistic Pk assigned (Pk in question is around 90%, as Typhoons in that exercise got 16 kills from 18 simulated missile shots).
7)
Typhoon was unable to get within 20 miles of F-22 without being targeted
