The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS (interdictor/strike) fighter-bomber, the suppression of enemy air defences Tornado ECR (electronic combat/reconnaissance) and the Tornado ADV (air defence variant) interceptor aircraft.

The Tornado was developed and built by Panavia Aircraft GmbH, a tri-national consortium consisting of British Aerospace (previously British Aircraft Corporation), MBB of West Germany, and Aeritalia of Italy. It first flew on 14 August 1974 and was introduced into service in 1979–1980. Due to its multirole design, it was able to replace several different fleets of aircraft in the adopting air forces. The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) became the only export operator of the Tornado in addition to the three original partner nations. A tri-nation training and evaluation unit operating from RAF Cottesmore, the Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment, maintained a level of international co-operation beyond the production stage.

The Tornado was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), Italian Air Force, and RSAF during the Gulf War of 1991, in which the Tornado conducted many low-altitude penetrating strike missions. The Tornados of various services were also used in the Bosnian War, Kosovo War, Iraq War, in Libya during the 2011 Libyan civil war, as well as smaller roles in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria. Including all variants, 990 aircraft were built.

During the 1960s, aeronautical designers looked to variable-geometry wing designs to gain the manoeuvrability and efficient cruise of straight wings with the speed of swept wing designs. The United Kingdom had cancelled the procurement of the TSR-2 and subsequent F-111K aircraft, and was still looking for a replacement for its Avro Vulcan and Blackburn Buccaneer strike aircraft.Britain and France had initiated the BAC/Dassault AFVG (Anglo French Variable Geometry) project in 1965, but this had ended with French withdrawal in 1967. Britain continued to develop a variable-geometry aircraft similar to the proposed AFVG, and sought new partners to achieve this. West German EWR with Boeing then with Fairchild-Hiller and Republic Aviation had been developing design studies of the swing-wing EWR-Fairchild-Hiller A400 AVS Advanced Vertical Strike (which has a similar configuration to the Tornado) from 1964 to 1968

General characteristics

Crew: 2
Length: 16.72 m (54 ft 10 in)
Wingspan: 13.91 m (45 ft 8 in) at 25° sweep
Swept wingspan: 8.60 m (28 ft 3 in) swept at 67° sweep
Height: 5.95 m (19 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 26.6 m2 (286 sq ft)
Empty weight: 13,890 kg (30,622 lb)
Gross weight: 20,240 kg (44,622 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × Turbo-Union RB199-34R Mk 103 afterburning 3-spool turbofan, 43.8 kN (9,800 lbf) thrust each dry, 76.8 kN (17,300 lbf) with afterburner
Performance

Maximum speed: 2,400 km/h (1,500 mph, 1,300 kn) at 9,000 m (30,000 ft)
1,482 km/h (921 mph; 800 kn) IAS near sea level
Maximum speed: Mach 2.2
Range: 1,390 km (860 mi, 750 nmi)
Ferry range: 3,890 km (2,420 mi, 2,100 nmi)
Service ceiling: 15,240 m (50,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 77 m/s (15,100 ft/min)
Wing loading: 767 kg/m2 (157 lb/sq ft)
Thrust/weight: 0.77
Armament
Guns: 1 × 27 mm (1.06 in) Mauser BK-27 revolver cannon internally mounted under starboard side of fuselage with 180 rounds
Hardpoints: 3 × under-fuselage and 4 × under-wing pylon stations with a capacity of 9,000 kg (19,800 lb), with provisions to carry combinations of:
Missiles: *** 2 x AIM-132 ASRAAM air-to-air missiles for self-defence
12 × Brimstone missile; or
2 × Storm Shadow
9 × ALARM anti-radiation missile
Bombs: *** 5 × 500 lb (230 kg) Paveway IV; or
3 × 1,000 lb (450 kg) (UK Mk 20) Paveway II/Enhanced Paveway II; or
2 × 2,000 lb (910 kg) Paveway III (GBU-24)/Enhanced Paveway III (EGBU-24); or
BL755 cluster bombs; or
Up to 2 × JP233 or MW-1 munitions dispensers (for runway cratering operations)
Up to 4 × B61 or WE.177 tactical nuclear weapons
Other: Up to 4 × drop tanks for ferry flight/extended range/flight time
Avionics
RAPTOR aerial reconnaissance pod
Rafael LITENING targeting pod; or
TIALD laser designator pod
GEC Sky Shadow electronic countermeasure pod

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