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Posted

I never really got the beauty of the Tornado. First of its really fuel thirsty and secondly its a lousy figther. Or maybe thats just me beeing lousy in it :good:

But never the less. Great shot spinners.

Posted

Defending the Motherland from the Yankee Imperialist Invaders!

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Socialists unite. We will score a blow for the workers of the world against the Imperialist skum!

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"What the bourgeoisie produces above all is its own grave diggers"... and we will help out too.

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"Long live the world socialist revolution!"

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We have a mighty victory against three of the damn Yankees! Long live Mother Russia!

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Posted

I never really got the beauty of the Tornado. First of its really fuel thirsty and secondly its a lousy figther. Or maybe thats just me beeing lousy in it :good:

But never the less. Great shot spinners.

 

Yeah, and just look at the specs on the Blue Circle radar! Horrible!

 

It was only meant to be an interceptor to defend the UK from Soviet medium and long range bombers crossing the North Sea and North Atlantic approaches. Of course an outstanding low level penetration aircraft does not an interceptor make. It has poor high altitude performance and relatively poor turning performance... An interceptor needs the high altitude performance but not necessarily the turning performance. It is fast and that really counts for Interception duties.

Posted

Exercise PERSIAN FIRE - RAF BAC Thunderstrike S.2s participate in joint exrcises with the Imperial Iranian Air Force, deploying to Bushehr in July 1973. This time the Thunderstrikes wore more appropriate camoflage.

 

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The British jets flew with a number of Iranian types, including F-4 Phantoms and F-5 Tigers

 

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Once again there were rumours that the British aircraft crossed the border into the Soviet Union on reconnaisance missions and recently declassified former-Soviet Air Force signal data does show that fighter interceptors were scrambled on a number of occasions during the course of the exercise.

 

For a short time upon it's return to the UK the aircraft pictured below sported a red star below the cockpit, signifying an air-to-air 'kill'. As the Thunderstrike carried no air-to-air missiles at this time, nor has it been equipped with a gun, the origin of this maerking can only be speculated upon, and the crew of the aircraft have never publicly commented on their activities during the period of Exercise PERSIAN FIRE in anything more than general terms.

 

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The pilot, Squadron Leader P Smeal, left the RAF in 1975 to take up a position in the air force of the former British colony of Dhimar and was instrumental in negotiating an order for the Thunderstrike for that service, flying the aircraft himself on a number of combat missions in the long running border conflict with neighboring Paran. Smeal's navigator/weapons operator during PERSIAN FIRE was a USAF exchange officer, Captain F C Harold. His exchange tour finished soon after the exercise and he rejoined his F-111 unit in the UK. Like Smeal he became an advocate of the Thunderstrike and strongly lobbied his superiors to consider acquiring the aircraft. Harold left the USAF and became a famed designer of aircraft and weapons systems. Ironically, in the 1990s several of his designs were stolen by Iranian agents and later re-surfaced in the Saeqeh (Thunderbolt) fighter.

 

From Osprey Air Combat 105: RAF BAC Thunderstrike Units in Combat author S Pinners, illus. S U Ndowner (2012)

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