The Truth About Tornadoes

The RAF Tornado mission in Iraq will be extended until at least March 2017; it was supposed to be discontinued last March.

16:46 06 August 2015

Eight Tornado GR4 fighter bombers, which have been launching ground attacks against the Islamic State group in Iraq, were supposed to be replaced with modern Eurofighter Typhoons last year.  However, Prime Minister David Cameron said that the Tornados’ mission would extend until March 2016 and on Tuesday, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon announced that it would be extended by another year.

 

The aircraft was conceived in the last 1960s and flew for the first time in 1974. The jet, according to as Hawker, a former RAF wing commander who flew the aircraft over Iraq and Kosovo, is very much a product of its era.

 

He said: "It's incredibly quiet. The pilot and the navigator could drop their oxygen masks and talk to each other. It's not silent but it's a lot quieter than people think."

 

He added: "It's still full of 1980s dials. There isn't the array of screens you might see in more modern fighters.”

 

Meanwhile, Nick de Larrinaga, Europe editor of IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, said that GR4 has a major advantage over the newer models. "They can carry the Brimstone air-to-surface missile which the RAF has found very useful." These are designed to minimise collateral damage and are capable of hitting moving targets.