Panavia Tornado ADV (Air Defense Variant)

History

The Panavia Tornado ADV (Air Defense Variant) was developed for the Royal Air Force (RAF) to fulfill the role of a long-range maritime interceptor. ADV is based on the Tornado IDS ground attack variant and was selected as a low cost solution to replace the aging stock of McDonnell Douglas Phantom II and UK Electric Lightning. Although only 218 aircraft of the Tornado ADV variant were produced, it formed a significant "quick response" force against Soviet air strikes.

The Tornado ADV variant in service with the UK and Saudi Arabia will be replaced by the state-of-the-art, often delayed Eurofighter Typhoon. Overall, ADV's service is limited to the RAF, RAF and Italian Air Force - the latter no longer using the platform.

As of March 2011, the RAF has retired its fleet of Panavia Tornado ADV aircraft.

Panavia Name

The name "Panavia" comes from the multinational design work to produce the "Multi-Role Combat Aircraft" (Project "MRCA", formerly "MRA" - Multi-Role Aircraft). The MRA was launched by Canada, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and West Germany to replace their aging Lockheed F-104 starfighters that had reached the end of their useful life. Britain joined the program when another "swing wing" joint venture with France, AFVG (Anglo-French Variable Geometry), failed.

While Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands eventually left the current MRCA project, the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy began to form Panavia Aircraft GmbH and split the company's shares among the three (airframe and engine production). Components (divided into nose/tail - UK; fuselage - West Germany; wings - Italy) will be completed individually before final assembly in their respective countries. The engine company (Turbo-Union) consists of British Rolls-Royce, West German MTU and Italian company FIAT.

Italy has a smaller stake in the aircraft and engine group. Panavia Aircraft GmbH is based in Germany and Turbo Union Ltd is based in the UK. The NATO Multirole Combat Aircraft Development and Production Authority (NAMMA) was created to direct and manage the production of the Tornado.

Likewise, this model was used in the newer Eurofighter Typhoon program, then known as the Eurofighter (EFA). Both NAMMA and EFA were replaced by the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Authority (NETMA). Multinational Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH thus took over Panavia's commitment to the Tornado.

Tornado ADV is born

Despite the "multi-role" nature of the MRCA program (the final product will be the Tornado IDS - InterDiction/Strike), there is no point in showing the new aircraft as a point-in-time air defense platform. Britain's greatest threat was long-range unescorted bombers from the Soviet Union.

While the agile aircraft products of continental Europe proved suitable for these special environments, the defense of the British Isles imposed a certain degree of requirements on the design of point defense fighters - primarily long-range flight over featureless waters.

So the RAF itself took on the responsibility of having the Tornado airframe provide some kind of "double duty" in its ranks. The RAF took the opportunity to develop a cost-effective solution for its ageing air defence force that did not require extensive modifications to the base IDS variant.

At the heart of the new system is Marconi Avionics' pulse-Doppler radar suite, linked to British Aerospace Dynamics' new XJ521 Sky Flash medium-range air-to-air missile, a derivative of the American AIM-7 Sparrow. Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missions will be the call of the day for this maritime interceptor, and the new Tornado ADV (air defense variant) is seen as the most effective solution for shooting down fast, high-flying Soviet bombers.

The original Tornado order totaled 385 in 1976 and should now include 165 Tornado ADV variants. On August 9, 1979, the ADV prototype "ZA254" (the first of three to be built) was unveiled on August 9, 1979 and made its maiden flight over Wharton on October 27, 1979 . The first flight involved the use of multiple "virtual" Skyflash rockets and was capable of exceeding Mach 1.0. Handling has been improved compared to its IDS counterpart, in part due to the revised, elongated hull with a new center of gravity. Further testing validated the design, including in-flight refueling exercises and night landing attempts.

The second prototype became the ZA267 on July 18, 1980, and was tasked with developing weapons for the ADV project. The final prototype became the ZA254 on 18 November 1980 and ended its development as a museum exhibit outside RAF Coningsby.

Initial Delivery and Operations

Deliveries of the first F. Mk 2 began in 1984 and consisted of only 16 examples. Interestingly, these first airframes were delivered without their all-important Marconi radar. Clearly, the Marconi Foxhunter radar still has a lot to work out. Therefore, a front concrete weight (called the "blue circle") was added in its place to balance the weight of the aircraft to the expected specifications, and training could begin.

The first ADV squadron was established in May 1987 as No. 29 Squadron of RAF Corningsby. The operation status was established at the end of November of the same year. These early F. Mk 2s ended up in storage and stripped of useful parts for later ADVs.

The Tornado ADV quickly became an integral part of the UK air defence network. The ADV will operate in conjunction with NATO forces, ground points and shipboard tankers to provide long-range defence elements to the UK homeland. The foundation of this defence network will be the ADV itself, with docking speed, firepower and tracking/targeting capabilities far exceeding what the aircraft offers in the current RAF inventory.

The ADV continues the tradition of the Tornado series, although considered by some to be the most important aircraft development of the Cold War.

The difference between Tornado ADV and Tornado IDS

The Tornado AVD retains the same general appearance as the base Tornado IDS model, but has an elongated and more pointed body and an improved nose assembly to accommodate the longer and more pointed Marconi/Ferranti AI. 24 Foxhunter Intercept Radar.

The wing sweep was slightly increased, the port inboard gun was removed, and an internal fuel tank was added to improve range. A fully retractable fuel tank is mounted on the port side of the aircraft. The underwing pylons of the base IDS are not used in the ADV. ADV's revised wing sweep at a 25-degree setting resulted in a 45.6-foot wingspan.

The 67-degree setting provides a wingspan of 28.2 feet. Later ADVs gained automatic wing sweep. Overall, the Tornado ADV still shares around 80% of the parts commonality with the Tornado IDS, truly making it the cost-effective solution the RAF has been looking for.

You are not a dog fight

While the Tornado ADV is an interceptor by name, its qualities as a close-range combatant should never be fully remembered - this is certainly an inherent limitation of its original origins as a low-level assault fighter. It was a Cold War-era design and was essentially a missile-laden platform designed to reach a target area at full speed and launch air-to-air missiles against long-range air targets. This explains that she only needs one internal cannon (she was not expected to be a melee mount for melee from the start) and many external mount points available.

The highlights of ADV are its speed, response time during launch, and BVR engagement capabilities. By modern standards, however, this no longer seems to fit what is considered to be the Air Warfare Act, but - in Cold War thinking - it was appropriate in aircraft design - even in the US and the USSR.

Regardless, Tornado ADV still has a place among its users mostly the RAF and has even recently seen the interception of Russian Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack bombers near British airspace.

Tornado ADV Tour

Tornado ADV looks a lot like part of their Ground Strike variant. She carries a cone-shaped nose assembly forward of the cockpit, which houses an internal interception radar. The cockpit accommodates two people sitting side by side (a pilot and his weapons systems officer - WSO) and is located under a one-piece rear hinged transparent canopy that showcases a lightweight frame. The air intakes are located on the sides of the fuselage, making the ADV look rather "burly". The air intakes are designed to be almost square and draw in the respective engines buried deep in the rear of the fuselage.

Exhaust gases from the engine exit through a conventional ring at the rear. The tail is dominated by a large-area vertical tail that shares the twin-engine layout. The base of the fin is spanned by rectangular retractable speedbrakes on either side. Fully moving stabilizer bars extend outward from both sides of each motor housing.

The main swept wing assembly is controlled by an internal mechanical (computer controlled) swept function. They extend beyond the fuselage design by "wing handguards," a small static wing area that connects the actual wing to the fuselage commonly found on rotorcraft.

The main wing itself is designed to be relatively straight, with a slight sweep along the leading and trailing edges. In its fully unfolded position, the Tornado ADV takes on a completely unique, somewhat menacing, and purposeful look. The chassis is a traditional tricycle arrangement.

This arrangement consists of a pair of single-wheel main landing gear legs (retracted to the underside of the fuselage) and a two-wheel nose gear leg (retracted forward under the pilot's cockpit floor).

Tornado Power

The Tornado ADV F. Mk 3's two Turbo Union engines each provide up to 9,104 lbf of dry thrust. With afterburners, thrust per engine increases to 16,410 lbf, but at the expense of range (such engines rely on pumping raw fuel into the exhaust to provide instantaneous speed, a speed boost, for a period of time) . A reported top speed of 1,452 mph (about Mach 2.27) makes it a supersonic mount and is said to have a service ceiling of around 50,000 feet. Ferry range is an impressive 2,650 miles (when using 4 external drop tanks), while operational range is limited to 869 miles.

While ADV's turbofans are fuel efficient at low levels, they reduce thrust slightly at medium and high levels - an effect not commonly seen in turbojet-inspired designs. The ADV's kerb weight is in the 32,000-pound range, while a fully loaded ADV can weigh up to 61,700 pounds.

Tornado Weapon

The standard armament of the Tornado ADV consists of an internal 27mm Mauser BK-27 cannon with 180 rounds of ammunition. One of the two guns from the original Tornado IDS variant was removed in the new ADV version, leaving only the starboard emplacement intact (and note that the ADV's primary role was not as air combat). Perhaps even more impressive is the ADV's ability to carry external ammunition through its ten weapon stations:

The hardpoints are divided into two, four or six under-wing positions and four under-fuselage positions. Depending on the wing sweep currently in use, pivots are mounted under the wings to orient the machinery forward (so as not to significantly disturb the airflow). The four hull locations are themselves semi-recessed mount points. The semi-recessed hardpoints give the illusion that the missile is "hugging" the bottom of the fuselage and appears to lie flat on it.

In total, ADV is authorized to manage approximately 19,800 pounds of ordnance.

Ordnance consists of air-to-air munitions only. For short-range missions, the ADV relies on the American AIM-9 Sidewinder or the British AIM-132 ASRAAM (Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile).

Sidewinders are usually mounted on special rail launchers on the sides and above the main inner wing pylons. Medium-range operations are addressed by the use of the American AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) or the British "Skyflash" (based on the American AIM-7 Sparrow).

The medium-range missile accommodates four semi-submersible hardpoints made from the ADV's elongated fuselage and staggered.