Special variant of the Tornado fighter
2024-08-23
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The British Air Force uses Tornado fighters with different paint schemes.
On August 14, the European aviation community celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the Tornado fighter. The Tornado fighter was jointly developed by the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. It is a two-seat, twin-engine supersonic variable-sweep wing fighter, which later developed into multiple series of models. Since its official service in 1979, the Tornado fighter has played an important role in the air forces of many countries.
Currently, the British Air Force has retired all Tornado series fighters, the Italian Air Force plans to retire all Tornado series fighters by 2025, and the German Air Force plans to gradually retire this series of fighters between 2026 and 2030. Saudi Arabia, as the only overseas user of this series of fighters, has purchased a total of 120 aircraft, and currently 80 are still in service.
The Tornado fighter jets have three main variants: fighter-bomber, electronic warfare and air defense interceptor. On the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the Tornado fighter jet, the US media introduced several special variants of the fighter jet.
The Tornado of the German Naval Aviation. The German Naval Aviation was the first user of the Tornado series fighter jets in Germany, even earlier than the German Air Force. The German Naval Aviation purchased 112 Tornado fighter-bombers, which were delivered since 1982. They mainly perform anti-ship and reconnaissance missions and can launch anti-ship missiles and AGM-88 anti-radiation missiles. In 2005, the last Tornado fighter-bomber of the German Naval Aviation was retired, and since then it no longer has supersonic fighter jets.
Anti-ship Tornado. During the Cold War, the German Naval Aviation and the Italian Air Force equipped their Tornado series fighters with anti-ship missiles. After the Cold War, the British Air Force also equipped some of its Tornado fighters with anti-ship missiles, and equipped them with improved ammunition mounting management systems and Sea Hawk anti-ship missile racks.
"Buddy" refueling type Tornado. The German and Italian Tornado fighters usually conduct "buddy" refueling training. The Tornado that performs this mission will mount the "Sargent Fletcher" refueling pod under the fuselage to provide refueling services for other Tornado fighters and other models.
The US Air Force's electronic warfare version of the Tornado. When the US Air Force's F-4G "Wild Weasel" electronic warfare aircraft was about to be retired, Panavia Aircraft, the developer of the Tornado series of fighters, participated in the bidding for the US Air Force's new electronic warfare aircraft. The company cooperated with Rockwell North American Aviation to enable the Tornado electronic warfare aircraft to adapt to the US-made AGM-88, AGM-45 anti-radiation missiles and AGM-65 air-to-ground missiles to perform the task of attacking the opponent's air defense radar system. However, the US Air Force did not choose to replace the F-4G with the Tornado in the end, but chose to use the modified F-16C fighter to perform air defense suppression missions.
The concept of the Tornado 2000. Shortly after the end of the Gulf War, Panavia Aircraft proposed the concept of the Tornado 2000 based on the damage of the Tornado fighter jets, with the aim of carrying out large-scale modernization and upgrading of the Tornado series of fighter jets. The Tornado 2000 intends to use an extended fuselage to increase the fuel and electronic equipment load, and the combat radius can be extended by 25%. In order to reduce the radar cross-section, the Tornado 2000 has redesigned the polyhedron nose and air inlet, and introduced a semi-buried conformal fuel tank design. However, the Tornado 2000 was abandoned due to the launch of the F-35 fighter project, and even the existing models of the Tornado series have been gradually replaced by the F-35 fighter jets. As a fighter jet that has been in service for 50 years, it does not have much time left. (Lei Yuan Li Xiang)
(Source: China National Defense News)
