Overview

The Tornado was designed to meet the needs of Britain's Royal Air Force, Germany's Luftwaffe and Marineflieger and Italy's Aeronautica Militare Italiano. No aircraft before or since has packed such striking power into such a compact package. The initial production model was used by all the original customers and Saudi Arabia. In late 1990, Tornados formed the spearhead of UN striking power in the Gulf, ready to hack it 'for real' at a moment's notice. Tornado IDS can hurtle down steep-sided valleys carrying an 8,000 lb bomb load without using any of the pylons on its pivoting swing wings. It is the fastest aircraft in the world at treetop height, at 800 knots, and has been cleared to carry more types of stores than any other warplane. The Tornado ECR - electronic combat and recon - version is packed with advanced avionics for finding and defeating hostile defence systems.