Huh, I literally always heard the claim that F-18s/‘the Americans’ had tried first, so really it doesn’t lend itself to a direct comparison between respective strike aircraft at all.
I appreciate the much more informed take than my own.
i mean a2a tornado vs F-15A, F-15 superior in like every way.
for ground pounding itd be going up against like F-18 as its rough contemporary, and tornado was still in the first half of its service when the production 229 strike eagles were made.
BVR Tornado F.3 Radar was as good and it carried the AMRAAM. Yes in BFM the Tornado would lose and lose hard.
However in wargames with the USN the Tornado groups bested the F-14B (I think) over the med.
F/A-18s as well I believe, this was 90s so probably not Super Hornets though
I’m biased towards Kyushu, sorry.
f14b mustve been held back in some way as it shouldve been able to obliterate the tornado from very far away
The F-14s avionics were pretty old by this point, the Tornado would have had it beat at range so long as they knew how to avoid the Phoenix (if they even bothered using it)
The Tornado made up for the abysmal flight envelope by having incredibly good avionics, things like the radar and ECM were virtually unrivalled, particularly by older aircraft like the F-14 (if the radar worked).
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AN/AWG-9 was an incredibly powerful radar, but its development traces back to the 60s. By the time the Tornado was in service the AN/AWG-9 could be jammed/negated, and not to mention the Foxhunter radar was extremely impressive as well.
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Superior tactics, combined with the Tornados Radar
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wouldnt something like the EF-111A, or TEWS on F-15E outclass it?
How Sly RAF Tornado Crews Repeatedly Killed U.S. Navy F-14s And F/A-18s In Training
If anyone is interested
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That is also incorrect. F-15Es hit Airfield H-2.
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and then the really funny thing is that the FA2s kicked the F3s arses all the time :D
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Not before Tornados did, I have the book on my desk about the Tornado operations in the Gulf
You said the USAF didn’t attempt to hit airfields. The USAF did hit airfields.
Didn’t we also beat the USMC on the ground too : P
The tornado evolved into essentially an incredibly effective hybrid between an ECM and Ground strike aircraft with all of them sharing the incredible ECM, i believe some of the pods in-game come with ECM IRL.
I am not going to tell you I have a source this is my opinion, but consider I hate the tornado, but in my opinion no, the Tornado probably had the best ECM of its era.
They did they bombed them from high altitude but not in the first weeks of the conflict Iraqi SAM network was still capable, B-52s also bombed the airfields and F-111 (if I recall)
I’ve seen people wondering about the Typhoon placement for Italy, I think it would go after the ADV as that is the Italian domestic line as the first line post war seemingly is for exports.
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