Panavia Tornado - A Short History

Dive into the captivating history of the Panavia Tornado, one of Europe's most iconic combat aircraft. In this episode of A Short History, we explore the Tornado's development, design, and the unique collaboration between the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy that brought it to life. Discover how the Tornado's groundbreaking variable-geometry wing design and advanced weapon systems made it a formidable force in the skies.

Join us as we uncover the Tornado's combat history, from the 1991 Gulf War to its role in the fight against ISIS. Learn about the different variants, including the Tornado IDS, ADV, and ECR, and how each country tailored them to their specific requirements. As the Tornado reaches its retirement, we pay tribute to its lasting legacy and the impact it had on European defense and aviation.

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[xxnightdriverxx]

Slight correction: at 5:03 you say that the German air force had retired their last Tornados in 2021. This is wrong.

As of late 2022, there are still 85 airframes in active service and 93 in total (we once had around 350). The last few aircraft will also stay in service for a few more years.

For a long time, it was the goal to have them retired in 2021. But since the last few governments could not come to an agreement for a successor aircraft, they just opted to not make a decision and leave it up to the next government in line, and thus the retirement date had to be pushed further aft.

We simply do not have a successor in service at this time. In March 2023, a decision has been finally made to procure 35 F-35As and 15 Eurofighter ECR to replace the Tornados.

The entire replacement process, including thus decision, was somewhat controversial. The reason is that in addition to ECM systems we need a plane capable of carrying US nuclear bombs, as this is required per NATO contracts. The Eurofighter is not certified to do that (even though it physically could), and to get a certification Airbus would have to send classified data of the Eurofighter to the US government to get it certified for said nuclear bombs, and said data would obviously find its way to Boing, the rival of Airbus. Obviously, Airbus does not want this. And as a European nation, we also want to strengthen European defense industries whenever possible instead of just buying from the US. For a long time, buying F/A-18 Super Hornets for the Nukes and F/A-18 Growlers for the ECM was also considered, but this would be a bandaid solution and you are again not giving anything to the European defense industries. For a long time the F-35 was considered too expensive, but prices have obviously dropped quite a lot due to mass production.

The other problem is that the Eurofighter ECR does not yet exist. It has to be developed first. And since Germany is basically the only nation interested in it, we are starting a whole new development process for just 15 planes. This will be VERY expensive. The indecisiveness of our past governments meant we could get the F-35s instead of Super Hornets, but it also greatly increases the cost of keeping the Tornado in service until the F-35s and Eurofighter ECRs are available, which probably does not happen until the late 2020s, especially the latter aircraft.

[grahamthebaronhesketh.]

I flew around the world in the GR4. Only had one engine fail in Alaska and 1 mainwheel extension fail in the Coco islands. 260 hours in total. Great old Tonka sorry to see them go. Must take her up again one day. I downloaded in for about $40 and love flying it in VR.

[evanrousseau]

She is and will continue to be a beauty

[michaelegan]

I used to work as an engraver, not far from the tripartite testing grounds in Leicestershire. For some reason they used our workshops as a navigational point and suddenly there would be a huge ROAR as one went over at 200 feet. Needless to say, much of the work was ruined by the workers who had no nerve. They must have cost the firm a fortune.

[johnp]

Didn't particularly enjoy working on them as in my trade everything seemed to be an afterthought, compared to older aeroplanes. I always thought it was built to be slightly better than adequate in most roles. Luckily, western aircrew and ground crew training and performance was, and is superior to most.