Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Well, at least the Saudis thought it was pretty good as a fighter. I think they've got about 80 ADVs

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Yeah but the Saudis have quite a diverse air force.

Diverse? Hmmm... I dunno, it's all pretty Western equiped and mainly US stuff (especially the F-15S) and Tornadoes, as far as the "small" combat a/c are concerned.

Yeah, but they'll buy almost anything western.

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Yeah, but they'll buy almost anything western.

...except bikinis... Wink

I checked, Saudis only bought 24 ADV (Air defence Variant) Tornados, the other ones are mud-mover variants. By the way, the Saudi Air Force doesn't look to be so satisfied with their ADV Tornados (compare it to a F-15 and you know why).
The Tornado F.3 is a bad dogfighter, a very well-known fact, even Tornado pilots admit it. The plane is too heavy and not agile enough, and was evolved from a ground-attack-specialized aircraft.

However, that is not so important if you think that the Britishs built it to be a long-range interceptor able to patrol the North Sea and counter Su-24 waves. Looking at it that way, it is a good plane: it has better combat duration than a F-15, it is pretty fast and accelerates well (VG wings), and has a very good long-range radar.

Oh yeah, I agree Wild, I mean for what it was designed for, it's a great aircraft. But like the German pilot said, "I dunno what the Brits were thinking trying to turn it into a fighter....."

The Viggen needs it's trust reverser to land on icy road bases

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Oh yeah, I agree Wild, I mean for what it was designed for, it's a great aircraft. But like the German pilot said, "I dunno what the Brits were thinking trying to turn it into a fighter....."

It was a great interceptor for the job intended. Loitering overwater far from home with a powerfull radar and a decent load of Skyflashes making life difficult for soviet planners. It's ability to get to an area very fast, then patrol leisurely with very economical engines was just what was needed back during the cold war. It's only gotten better with AMRAAM and ASRAAM, as well as advanced comm links, GPS etc.. The time for pure interceptors may be over in western airforces but it served very well for quite a few years guarding the northern approaches & GIUK.Raleigh NC

I read there had been a screw up when they installed the AMRAAM's onto the Tornado's forgetting to install the systems in the Tornado that maked the AMRAAM capable of active radar homing (which is the entire point of the missile). This made the AMRAAM worse on the tornado then the Sky Flash missiles it replaced.

When it was initially installed back in 1998 yes but it wasn't a screw up... there was an upgrade required to the radar; however since 2001 they have had full AMRAAM capability. Utilising JTIDs they can remote target the missiles (ie. targetted by another aircraft or awacs) and can engage multiple targets themselves.

Skyflash are still in service and indeed arm the QRA aircraft at the moment but this is due to the most likely threat being Airliners for which Amraam aren't needed and Skyflash has a bigger warhead. However towards the end of this year, skyflash is being retired so we will see Amraam also being used on QRA.

You may want to read this thread... <a href="f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-4638.html">F-16 vs Tornado F.3</a>

Andy

Darkwand wrote:

I read there had been a screw up when they installed the AMRAAM's onto the Tornado's forgetting to install the systems in the Tornado that maked the AMRAAM capable of active radar homing (which is the entire point of the missile). This made the AMRAAM worse on the tornado then the Sky Flash missiles it replaced.

Boy, this is an old thread!
The MOD tried to save money when they integrated AMRAAM and couldn`t use all of AMRAAMs capabilities. The datalink for the missile being the main culprit, which wasn`t integrated. Skyflash was a better option because of it.
Tornado F-3s now have the FULL AMRAAM capability realised. As THE Mastiff said, along with ASRAAM, AMRAAM, Link16, the F-3 is finally the interceptor it was supposed to be! That is all the F-3 was supposed to be, not a dogfighter. The addition of ASRAAM with it`s high off bore sight ability 90 degree, and L.O.A.L make up for that somewhat. Because it will be retired in 2009, a HCS was not added I think. Andy will probably know whether that is the case.

It will be retired by 2009! To make way for Typhoon.

Hey Andy, I am psychic!!!!

Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Thrust reversers on the Tornado