Tornado F.3

[Caesar]

Damn that's a good lookin' piece of machinery! Great job!

[+ErikGen]

Bella lì Beppe ... è stupendo.

[DWCAce]

She's looking absolutely beautiful!

[+Crusader]

nice machine :ph34r:

[JediMaster]

That is some great work. The soot from the TR's on the tail is especially good.

[Syrinx]

Oh wow !

 

Looking absolutely amazing.

[PigDriver]

Very nice indeed!

[Jarhead1]

Good shout JB and even the Hunters of that era (mid-50's) were in a bit of a state.

 

Anyway, the Tornado F.3 will be a great addition to the SF family and we can always convert it into a Strike aircraft.

 

 

 

 

Why would u convert the F.3 into a strike aircraft? Its a dogfighter correct? Dont we have the IDS for strike purposes?

[kct]

First...it's never designed as a dogfighter. More like an air defence fighter, and that is what it does best.

 

Second...there is an SEAD version of the F.3, that is, the EF.3 using ALARMs mounted on GR fuselage pylons.

 

These guys would still mount the outer wing pylons to carry the ECM and the countermeasure dispenser.

Edited October 16, 2008 by kct

[Jarhead1]

Ok, well I really dont know much about the Tornado variants except what I have heard on the forums here so I apologize, I was just taking a blind stab in the dark pretty much.

[+aleks]

from what i remember, there was a plan in early 2000's to convert almost the half of tornado f3 as multirole fighters, assuming also strike capabilities. nevertheless, the progress made on eurofighter typhoon's multirole radar covered the needs of the lackthat caused the retirement of Jaguar gr1.(there were preliminary models of typhoon with double radar cone once!!!).first of all, the remaining tornado ids converted to gr4 standard proof that the update was more succesful respect the early plans.second, a tornado f3 in grade to assume some different profiles and missions neeed a lot of modifications, especially new mobile wings.

for the moment, the specific type is under retirement, and the only reason of remaining in service is the new strategyof the russian air force and the visits of tupolev bombers nearby the english territory.half a year ago they decided to mantain some in service specifically for long CAP's , until the typhoon reaches the combat readiness in more squadrons.

the aircraft is very expensive to mantain in service and the italian experience prooves this fact.(they prefered to leave the contract of leasing with raf and hire f-16a for the same roles and missions, a plane different from all their fleet in service).

for the same reason, the saudi arabian air force plans to retire it's tornado f3 component, as soon as possible after the complete retirement of the raf's fleet.

being a variant of a succesful aircraft, doesn't mean that they have so many interchangeable parts in common

[macelena]

As far as the Tornado was designed with the same way of thinking of the Tomcat already retired, some features of the aircraft

(double seater,variable geometry wing, interceptor purpose, lack of performance to current standards)and its lack of some more

ECM & decoy make it expensive to mantain for what they could be able to do, even with AMRAAM and ASRAAM, so as far

as RAF can deploy their Typhoon, this aircraft come expendable - remember that military budget is the first idea against

the economical crisis

 

Anyway, it was an interceptor that became the first line of fighters in the RAF, RSAF & AMI, its cool, and deserves to be made

at last!!

[butch287]

hey folks

 

 

Ive used the downloads for a while, but this is the first time I have posted.

 

 

The ALARM fit was a trial carried out by 6 aircraft , and it wasnt a fleet wide fit, this was around 2003, the F3 would have made a very effective wild weasel platform, but from what I know of gulf ops, the preffered method for dealing with SAM sites is a paveway or JDAMs as this provides positive evidence the site has been destroyed. I had a few intersting chats with the avionics techies and they said that the jets internal ESM fit was better than that which was fitted to the german Tornado ECRs.

 

The F3 could carry in weight terms the same load as the GR1s, and in the early 80s BAE offered a multi role F3 to the Japanese, it would have shoulder pylons and be wired to carry any of the then current GR1 weapons (Sea Eagle, JP233 ect) and carried an intregal laser designator ect.

 

The F3 was a good stand off interceptor, and people tend to forget that the jet is no dogfighter, in DACM with RAF Hawks the jockeys opinion was that you put the nose down and run away fast then turn and take another BVR shot. The F3 was very poor above 25k feet, the engines took a long time to respond , the other ceiling limiting factor was after flight above 27k feet the radars would have problems caused by moisture, the avionics techies loathed high altitude flying. The Radar was the worst part of the F3 to be honest it would forever breakdown and lots of sorties were lost becuse of it, the latest radar is only know coming up to the brouchoure hype of the late 80s, the F3s best assetts know is its JTIDS and its AMRAAMs the JTIDS has kept the F3 relevant in exercises, even against aircraft like the F16AMs and the such like, AMRAAMs just compliment the JTIDS and increase the chances of the F3 living to fight another day.

 

Standard load out for the F3 during Telic in 2003 , was a Towed Radar Decoy Pod under one outboard pylon, a BOZ pod under the other, 4 Asraams 4 Skyflash and 160 rounds in the gun, chaff was also fitted in the inboard ASRAAM launchers and flares were mounted under the jet pipes.

 

hope this is off interest

 

 

P.s

 

Am loving the F3 model that is being created, especially the squadron markings!

[butch287]

Oh and for my money the best the RAF could have bought in the 70s was the F14, the Phoneix/AWG-9 was exactly what the RAF needed in terms of capability, unfortunately it didnt secure UK jobs and was too expensive as well.

[+bobrock]

Thank you guys for your words and for the always interesting background info.

Maybe someone could help me with this: in the pit there are 2 displays, the center one is the radar (like in the IDS/GR variant) but I still have no clue about the smaller one on the right (you can see it in a pic on page 2). I don't think the F3 has a TV guidance, and right now I'm using it as a map, just to put it in good use.

Any ideas?

[JediMaster]

Judging by the comparison with the GR.1 I'd say it's the RWR/TEWS/whatever the acronym is. Looks like they got a different model in the F.3 seeing as the mission would be more AA while the GR.1 is more AG. Of course, I'm just guessing.

[butch287]

Yeah I Concur with Jedi , as I rember it that was a repeater scope for the RWR

[+The Trooper]

The small display left of the HUD is a weapon status panel. I think, I have more detailed information about its readings at home.

 

The small display right of the HUD is a threat warning display. It displays threat type and direction.

[scouserlad13]

Hey mate, this aircraft looks like its gona be one hell of a beast to fly in the skys! The Tornado is one of my most favorite aircraft of all time! When is it due to come out? Soon i hope, keep up the good work

[+bobrock]

Update on the pit: the textures are almost done and soon i will be focusing on the avionics and the fm. It wasn't easy to find the correct references for the ADV, but I'm pretty happy with the result so far.

 

[DWCAce]

Model and cockpit both look awesome, keep up the good work!

[The_Editor]

Looks incredible!

[the test pilot]

a little wonder.

 

truly worth the two weeks waiting. i can bet on this one.

[fallenphoenix1986]

pit looks excellent, lokoing forward to this one

 

Craig

[Mannie]

A beautiful bird and pit.

Thanks. Looking foreword!