Did the Tornado EF.3 retain it’s ability to use Skyflash/AMRAAMs when not carrying ALARMs on the lower fuselage?
Unfortunately, as far as I know, carrying ALARM blocks use of all the semi-recessed launchers.
Edit: I misread what you meant. It can still carry AMRAAM when not carrying ALARM. But if you carry ALARM you cannot carry any radar missiles at the same time.
1 Like
Yes, there’s photos of ZE763 with AMRAAM when it was with 111 Squadron, taken some years after it was carrying ALARM at 11 Squadron (“DG” tail code)
2 Likes
So I wonder if they’ll add it as a mod for the F3s
Surely this can’t be accurate, the statcard for the countermeasure pods (alone) on the Tornado GR.1 weigh 1.7 tonnes, on the GR.4 they weigh around 1.8 tonnes.
On the German premium Tornado, they weigh around 1.2 tonnes.
I don’t really know how to check the total weight of the aircraft ingame, WTRTI doesn’t seem to show it, but presumably this isn’t correct. Hopefully it’s just a statcard error.
For context, the MAWs countermeasure pods only weigh around 600kg on total, for both.
3 Likes
The german pod had some empty space in it as some of the functions of the pod was integrated into the tornado itself
But also the swedish pod which has less flare and chaff i grant you but theres not much empty space bc it was dedicated to RWR stuff is about 350kg
Countermeasure pod found on the AJ/AJS 37
I find it hard to believe each of those pods weighs 850kg
1 Like
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
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
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.
7 Likes
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
1 Like
It was just a technology demonstrator programme. The knowledge they gained was used in ECRS Mk.2 IIRC.
Yeah, both can get the full 9x ALARM fit
Tornado GR1:
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
But its the outer shoulder mounts that are the ones I want more than any other
3 Likes
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
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.