Well, its going to be a bit difficult replacing the Tornados with any other aircraft on a sqn level. 23 RAF sqns flew the Tornado. 9 F-3 (incl 1 that also fly F-2), 5 GR-1 and 8 GR-4s. The GR-1s were retired in 1999. The F-3 retired in Mar 2011. Of the final 8 GR-4 sqns:
2 sqn stood down on 31 Mar 2015 and stood up as a Typhoon sqn on 1 Apr 2015.
13 sqn stood down in May 2011 and stood up as a MQ-9 reaper sqn in Oct 2012.
14 sqn disbanded in June 2011 and stood up as a shadow R1 sqn in Oct 2011
617 sqn disbanded in 2014 and has stood up in Apr 2018 as a F-35B sqn.
15 Sqn, which was the OCU, was disbanded on 31 Mar 2017. As this is an OCU, there are no plans to reactivate the unit.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-no ... d-3930452812 sqn flew its last tornado in Dec 2017, lodged its colours with Queen on 2 Feb 2018 until its return as a joint UK-Qatari training unit with Typhoons this year. A standing up ceremony for the sqn as held on 24 Jul 2018.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/join ... ip-deepens9 Sqn will stand up as a Typhoon sqn at RAF Lossiemouth this year. I noted vacancy recruitments for start date of 1 Apr 2019…
https://www.northwaleschronicle.co.uk/n ... -anglesey/31 Sqn will be the last to be decommissioned. Will be the 1st protector sqn, as announced in Jul 2018 (see link below), operating the MQ-9B, some of which has been delivered.
https://twitter.com/31sqnoc?lang=enIt is possible that some of the former F-3/GR-1 squadron colours can be raised again but don’t think that really counts as a replacement after a decade’s gap…