As it currently stands within War Thunder, there are 8 Tornado IDS aircraft. 3 at 11.3, 4 at 11.7 and 1 at 12.3. 7 of them have the Mk103 engine. Only one of them has the weaker Mk101 engine. The Tornado Gr1 located in the British TT.
The official reason for this is to create a “sense of progression” between the Tornado Gr1 and the Tornado Gr4
Which quite frankly, is a rather insane logic given that it hasn’t been applied to a single other TT. Notably Italy.
Located within the Italian TT are 3 Tornado IDS. An Early Tornado without any guided weapons, an identical aircraft with a basic Tpod (CLDP) and 4x GBUs and a Late variant of the Tornado IDS which (at the moment) largely identical but just has a better TPod (Litening III) And a wide range of GPS guided weapons,
All 3 have the Mk103 engine. So using Gaijins logic for the Mk101 engine. At least 1 of the Italian Tornados should also have the Mk101 engines but they dont. There is litereally no reason to ever play the Tornado IDS (1995) at 11.7 in the Italian TT within airmodes because it is identical to an aircraft at a lower BR and you would never need 4x GBUs within ARB.
The Difference however between the GR1 and GR4 (excluding the engine) include
- HMS
- TERMA (All-aspect MAWS + 240 CMs)
- BOL (320 CMs)
- Aim-9M
- IR PGM-500/2000
- Litening III
- Brimstone
- GPS guided bombs
- FLIR
Suffice to say, there is plenty of other differences between the Tornado Gr1 and the Tornado Gr4 to create a “feeling of progression” without the need for the Tornado Gr1 to have a different engine.
Should the Tornado Gr1 finally recieve its Mk103 engine?
- Yes
- No