- Yes - as a tech tree vehicle
- Yes - as an event / battle pass / squadron vehicle
- Yes - as a premium / pack vehicle
- No
Introduction
Tornado F.3s deployed to the first Gulf War under Operation Granby received extensive modifications, some of which were not seen on any other version of the F.3. I believe these modifications could make an Op Granby spec Tornado F.3 a unique premium / event vehicle for the UK tree. It would have capabilities that likely put it somewhere between the Tornado F.3 and F.3 Late, while not detracting from them.
History
With the first Gulf War looming the RAF was forced to decide which air defence fighter it would deploy to Operation Granby: the Phantom FGR.2 was well proven, but also outdated and just months from retirement; while the Tornado F.3, a far more advanced aircraft, was still in its infancy with many teething issues yet to be worked out. Ultimately it was decided that the Tornado F.3 would be deployed but not before extensive modifications were made to the aircraft to improve its survivability and combat effectiveness.
Once the decision was made a rapid modification programme instantly began to prepare the Tornado F.3s for war in just a matter of weeks (compared to the months or years that such mortifications would usually take). It only took 5 days from the decision being made for the first fully modified F.3 to be produced for testing. Eventually 40 F.3 would be modified for Operation Granby; they were often referred to as Stage 1+ or Granby standard.
Features
Being a modified Tornado F.3 this aircraft will be fairly similar to the ones currently in the game. However it will have a number of unique features.
Weapons
At the time of the Gulf War the Tornado F.3 was armed with the AIM-9L Sidewinder and Skyflash SuperTEMP missiles. A couple of notable improvements were urgently made in this area. The first was to modify the Tornado’s LAU-7 launch rails such that they disabled the “chirp” circuity in the AIM-9L seeker head (I’ve explained how this works previously). The RAF found that this could double the lock on range of the AIM-9L. The second improvement was the integration of the AIM-9M missile, a couple of hundred of which were urgently purchased from the United States.
Uprated Engines (RB199 Mk 106)
The standard Tornado F.3 featured a “Combat” thrust setting which the pilot was allowed to use for up to 5 minutes. It increased the maximum engine Turbine Blade temperature (TBT) by 23°C, leading to an increased thrust of 16,523 lb per engine. Despite this the performance of the F.3 in the hot environment of the Gulf was still thought to be lacking so the RAF looked into various ways to increase thrust further. The first was to reprogramme the engine control unit to increase the allowable TBT by 24°C, leading to a further 3-5% increase in thrust (approximately 17,184 lb), at the cost of engine life falling from 500 hours to only 150 hours. The RAF then carried out at a second re-programming to increase the allowable TBT by a further 24°C (i.e. 48°C higher than the base value), which lead to a 7% thrust increase (approximately 17,680 lb) compared to the base engine at the expense of a painfully short engine life of just 80 hours. Reports differ on whether crews were allowed to use the +48°C setting (the +24°C setting was definitely used), but it was tested so Gaijin could give it to the aircraft to make it more unique. It is worth noting the combat mode is not currently modelled on the Tornado F.3 in game, meaning it has only 16,114 lb of thrust; this would make the highest engine rating (17,680 lb) a fairly significant upgrade.
A TBT increase was not the only change made to the F.3’s engines though. A decision was made to fit the improved “62B” fan disc from the RB199 Mk 105 engine into the F.3’s Mk 104 engines, this created a hybrid engine originally known as the Mk 104B, and later renamed to the RB199 Mk 106. Coupled with the TBT increases described above the improved fan discs lead to a further increase in thrust. The 62B fan discs used in operation Granby were quite literally “borrowed” from the spares pool Germany kept for its Tornado ECR fleet. I’ve been unable to find a precise figure for the thrust increase offered by this modification.
Countermeasures
At the time of Operation Granby the Tornado F.3 had no countermeasure dispensers; the BOL and Vinten Vicon dispensers had been ordered, but would not be available until 1992. It was deemed unacceptable to send the F.3s into a war zone with no form of self defence so an interim flare / chaff solution had to be found. For flares this took the form of a pair of AN/ALE-40 dispensers taken from the RAF Phantom FGR.2 fleet, so rushed was the modification that there wasn’t even time to remove the 45° angle adapter used on the Phantom, they were simply fitted as they were.
For chaff the RAF turned to the tried and tested Phimat pod (it’s hard to find a Cold War aircraft which the RAF didn’t bolt it to at one point or another). There was however the slight problem of where to carry it, in the end two solutions were found. The first option was to replace one or two of the sidewinder launch rails with the Phimat pod (decreasing the total Sidewinder load to 3 or 2). The other option was to carry a Phimat pod under each wing pylon, this obviously prevented the carrying of drop tanks, but allowed a full Sidewinder load to be carried.
We now have separate chaff and flare dispensing in game, this will particularly benefit the F.3 Granby, with it’s two large Phimat pods. When used in operation Granby the Tornado F.3 carried 15 2" x 1" flares in each AN/ALE-40 dispenser (30 total), however Gaijin seems to give nearly all AN/ALE-40 equipped aircraft in game 30 1" x 1" flares, regardless of what they carried in service (this would give the F.3 Granby 60 flares total). Meanwhile each Phimat pod could carry 216 chaff packets (giving up to 432 chaff in total).
RCS Reduction
The Tornado F.3 had a fairly large RCS for a fighter at around 9 m2 in the frontal arc. An effort was made to reduce this by applying radar absorbing paint to the leading edges of the aircraft, along with hundreds of Radar Absorbing Material (RAM) tiles to the inside of the intakes. These efforts apparently reduced the range at which the Tornado could be detected from the front by 20%, corresponding to the RCS being reduced to less than 4 m2.
Radar Improvements
The Tornado F.3’s AI.24 Foxhunter radar had infamously poor performance in it’s early years, being plagued by a raft of technical issues. By the time of Operation Granby the radar had been upgraded to “Stage 1” standard, which was the first major step towards fixing its many issues. While a sizeable improvement over the radar’s previous models it was still far from perfect. As a result of the impending Operation Granby there was a lot emphasis placed on improving the radar and a series of improvements were rapidly made bringing the radar to Stage 1+ standard. While this is worse than the Stage 2G standard we have in game, it was a significant improvement over any previous standard. With very little being known about the exact performance of Stage 1+ it seems likely that the radar will perform pretty similar to Stage 2G as far as War Thunder is concerned.
AURA-B
AURA-B (standing for Alternative Use of Radar Antenna) was a little known modification made to the Foxhunter which allowed it to function as a stand off jammer; I’ve not seen definitive proof of whether it was used in the Gulf but it was definitely developed and tested for Operation Granby. While we don’t have ECM in War Thunder at the moment I thought I’d still mention this as we might get it in the future, and if nothing else it’s an interesting bit of history.
During normal operation the Foxhunter’s radar transmitter utilised two Travelling Wave Tubes (TWTs). The AURA-B modification added a switch which allowed the pilot to connect one of the TWT’s to noise generator, allowing the Foxhunter to function as a jammer in the 9.0 - 9.6 GHz frequency range used byt the MiG-29 / Su-27s radar. The drawback being that, at least in it’s initial version, AURA-B meant the radar could not continue to function in it’s normal mode while the jammer was active.
Specification
Spoiler
General characteristics
- Crew: 2
- Length: 18.68 m (61 ft 3 in)
- Wingspan: 13.91 m (45 ft 8 in) at 25° sweep 8.6 m (28 ft) at 67° sweep
- Height: 5.95 m (19 ft 6 in)
- Wing area: 26.6 m2 (286 sq ft)
- Powerplant: 2 × Uprated Turbo-Union RB199 Mk 104 or Mk 106 Engines (see relevant section))
Performance
- Maximum speed: 800 kts at Sea level / Mach 2 at Altitude
- Max normal acceleration: +7.5g / -2g
- Empty weight: 14,500 kg (31,967 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 27,986 kg (61,699 lb)
Weapons
- 1 × 27 mm Mauser BK-27 revolver cannon with 170 rounds
- Up to 4 x AIM-9L / 9M Sidewinder IR Missiles
- Up to 4 x Skyflash TEMP / SuperTEMP SARH Missiles
Countermeasures
- 30 large or 60 regular countermeasures (2 x AN/ALE-40)
- 432 large chaff (2 x Phimat)
Photos
Spoiler
A Tornado F.3 deployed on operation Granby:
AN/ALE-40 flare dispensers repurposed from the Phantom:
A Phimat pod in place of a Sidewinder:
RAM on the leading edges:
Phimat in place of a drop tank:
Conclusion
An Operation Granby Spec Tornado F.3 would make a unique addition to the game sitting somewhere between the Tornado F.3 and F.3 Late in terms of overall capability. Flight performance would be better than either aircraft, while the countermeasures would arguably be slightly weaker than both, and armament would be somewhere between the two (AIM-9M, but no AIM-120).
It is also a historically significant aircraft. Operation Granby was the first time the Tornado F.3 (or any ADV version for that matter) saw combat, and was a major factor in a lot of the Tornado F.3s early teething issues being resolved. I feel that the Operation Granby Tornado F.3 would work well as a event or premium vehicle, complementing the two Tornado F.3s we currently have in the main tree.
Sources
- National Archives Documents:
- AVIA 69/44 Tornado: Air Defence Variant (ADV); Operation Granby
- AVIA 69/45 Tornado: Air Defence Variant (ADV); Operation Granby
- AVIA 69/46 Tornado: Air Defence Variant (ADV); Operation Granby
- AVIA 69/48 Tornado: Operation Granby
- AVIA 69/49 Tornado: Operation Granby
- AVIA 69/50 Tornado: Operation Granby
- Official Sources:
- CTTO 6/17/AIR Tornado F.3 tactics Manual
- Air Historical Branch (RAF) Narrative - THE ROYAL AIR FORCE IN OPERATION GRANBY, THE FIRST GULF WAR, 1990-1991: TORNADO F3
- Tornado Report No.6 - June 1991
- Books:
- Tornado F3 in Focus: A Navigator’s Eye on Britain’s Last Interceptor by David Gledhill
