Rare Tornado Fighter Storms Through The Desert
Staff Sgt. Warren Spearman
Storm Warning.
The Panavia Tornado isn’t a common sight around the United States but over in Europe, it’s pretty damn fierce. Since its introduction in 1979, 992 Tornados were produced serving the Air Forces of four separate nations.
The multirole fighter is useful for a variety of scenarios including dogfights, intercepting aircraft and as a bomber. Although it is equipped with a variety of weapons, the Tornado’s greatest strength may be the Brimstone missiles which can hit targets moving at up to 70 mph.
“The jet is very much a product of its era. The Panavia Tornado was developed jointly by the UK, Germany and Italy to fly low and fast, avoiding Soviet air defenses. Over time its bombing capacity was developed.”
While the Tornado has proven to be an effective fighter the Royal Air Force will be retiring it by 2017 in favor of the Typhoon and F-35. Many pilots consider The Tornado to be superior to fighters such as the F-22 preferring its easy handling. This fighter is a thing of beauty as you can see here in this clip, it’s a damn shame that they never made their way to the US Air Force.
