A message to the media?

The Royal Air Force’s “ready to deploy” statement this week concerning Eurofighter Typhoon’s multi-role capability has dominated the defence headlines this week. And rightly so. The strength of the messages emanating from all levels, from the Squadrons to the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, leaves little room for misunderstanding: Eurofighter Typhoon is primed and raring to go.

But was there a hidden message in amongst all the blurb from the UK Ministry of Defence? Consider this, taken directly from the official MoD press release: To mark the occasion today a Typhoon equipped with its high-tech Litening III laser-designator pod flew over RAF Coningsby and demonstrated its ground-attack capability after having its theoretical fire directed precisely onto a target by Forward Air Controllers (FAC) on the ground. Media attending then realised the target was their own tent when they saw themselves on the FAC's monitor.

Yes, that’s right. The jet was laser-targeting a tent full of journalists. We can only assume that the message was received as there’s been nothing but excellent press coverage all week!