Panavia Tornado (UK versions) - Technical data and discussion

IIRC a full BOZ pods should be something like 650 kg. And probably 100 or so kg less than that empty.

So I just stumbled upon this:

Spoiler

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Apparently the Sky Shadow pod was upgraded into the “Common Jamming Pod” around 2015, all the internals were updated / replaced and a pair of towed radar decoys were added. RAF Aircraft and Weapons 2017 seems to imply the pod entered service:

Spoiler

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Does anyone know anything about this pod or have any photos of it? It’s the first time I’ve seen any reference to Towed Radar Decoys on the Tornado GR.4.

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Does anyone know, where ARTS went?
https://web.archive.org/web/20060314031505/http://www.qinetiq.com/home/newsroom/news_releases_homepage/2006/1st_quarter/arts.html

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It was just a technology demonstrator programme. The knowledge they gained was used in ECRS Mk.2 IIRC.

@Bugblox

Yeah, both can get the full 9x ALARM fit

Tornado GR1:


tornado-alarm-1

The Tornado GR1 carried ALARM during Operation Granby and fired 123 of them

Tornado GR4 is more often depicted as running a mix of ALARM and Brimstone. Not sure ive seen an image of a Tornado GR4 with belly ALARM, but there is no reason why it would have lost the ability too do so, just less of a need to do so I guess

Brimstone2

But its the outer shoulder mounts that are the ones I want more than any other

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I hope these loadouts in GRB dont cost 1 million spawn points, I’d love to be Suppression of enemy air defence main right at the start of a match

It will be very interesting to see how hard/easy the top tier RU SPAAs can shoot down these missiles… I have a sneaking suspicion that its gonne be a waste of time

We do have 1 issue, that I don’t think we ever saw come up in the nuclear thunder event, probably due to deliberate selection of SAMs, is that the Pantsir can’t be targeted by ALARM or most ARMs because of it’s radar frequency.

So vs the soviets in any uptier it probably won’t be usable annoyingly. Might be handy Vs OSA and 2S6 though

But I’m just hoping it’s a bit of a score/reward buff in air modes and be kinda fun

I imagine it could be quite fun in SB, I assume they could be used to target the SPAAs in the convoys and ground battle areas

GR4 with the shoulder (belly) pylons fit with ALARM.

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Oh, nice, thank you

Well, SIDAM 25s don’t have a radar but might be handy vs the Gepards at least, but I hope they add more SEAD overall

Didn’t they update ALARM’s threat library during Granby using data from the Sneaky Nimrod crowd?

I recall a lot of the Iraqi IADS used French systems as well as Russian stuff - systems which ALARM probably wouldn’t have been geared towards but they seemed to update it anyway.

Im just going by Flame’s spreadsheet on this from the ARM thread. But Pantsirs are 21 years newer than Op Granby and were retired in RAF service in 2014, about 2 years after the Pantsir S1 entered service. I dont know if the Saudis updated it though.

Edit:

Im an idiot. The Track is K-band which is why a lot of aircraft RWR dont get a warning they’ve been fired at, but the Search is F-band and is detected by ALARM. So it would be usable. So Tornado GR1 will finally get a weapon to use against a Pantsir

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I’ll have to do some digging. A lot of this stuff isn’t so much hardware as it is software - getting the sensor to ‘see’ the energy as a legitimate threat that matches something in the library.

Ah - good stuff. The moment someone decides to power up their OPSV - they might get an explosive surprise in future. I like it.

Yep, Gives a reason to ever take the GR4 into GRB which is kinda nice.

With the Pantsir SV yeah this be easy for it.

But it will be cool to launch these from distance while the Pantsir/SAMs are occupied with proper strike aircraft

Better still - we get to look forward to the inevitable forum thread.

‘WHAT AIR DEFENCE DOING?’

(Posts this in the fullest knowledge that the average RuMain has no sense of humour.)

Would be awesome if they give ALARM it’s loiter function. Now THAT would be cool.