Special
The Royal Air Force has been preparing to bid farewell to what is arguably its most significant postwar aircraft type – the unmistakeable swing-wing Tornado. Thomas Newdick spoke to some of the last crews active on the Tornado GR Force.
As the RAF prepared to call time on its Tornado GR4 fleet, the jet was still busy taking the fight to so-called Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. It was business as usual for the Tornado, which has seen near continuous operations since its combat debut in the 1991 Gulf War.
The Tornado first entered RAF service in GR1 guise back in 1982 and initially trained for the deadly Cold War nuclear strike and interdiction missions. The warplane’s future was then shaped in equal measure by the fall of the Iron Curtain, a successful baptism of fire in Operation Desert Storm and an unprecedented period of sustained coalition air operations in the Middle East and elsewhere. In the meantime, squadron numbers have been progressively trimmed, but the Tornado and its crews have kept pace with the demanding tempo of operations. In terms of avionics, weapons and overall capabilities, the jet’s definitive GR4 configuration is a technological world apart from the original GR1.
