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?
if the GR.1 is to get upgraded engines like the German tech tree IDS and the Italian IDS(1995) and IDS MLU it should probably go up in BR because out of those 4 it is the only one with AGMs by way of the PGM-500 and PGM-2000.
it having weaker engines but significantly more usefull ordinance is in my opinion a fair trade off for the same BR.
i bring 2 PGM-2000s at all times, use them to squeeze some extra points by hitting ground units before making the mad dash to the base with the 8 1000lbs bombs i still have under the belly of the plane.
Sometimes the PGM-2000s even work great as distractions for enemies but that is very dependent on how familiar the enemy is with all the ordinance and planes at this BR.
this has consistently netted me more points then the ASSTA1 version has without PGMs.
If the GR.1 is to get mk 103 engines it should have an increase in BR in my opinion.
Personally i think the current trade off is fine.
As far as I am aware. Every single tornado IDS entered service with the mk101 and was upgraded to the mk103 a few years later. Among other things, it was a big boost to reliability of the engines iirc
and for Clarity.
I am not asking for any change, personally i think the way it currently is, is good.
the IDS ASSTA, the IDS(1995) and the IDS MLU get better engines
the GR.1 gets better ordinance options.
if the GR.1 was to get mk103 engines and retain the PGMs it would be hands down better for all modes and in my opinion warrant a higher BR compared to the IDS ASSTA, the IDS95 and IDS MLU.
how that is to be achieved doesn’t matter to be, the rest could go down a bit or the GR.1 could go up a bit.
as it stands, which is my prefered way the GR.1 gets better ordinance, the others get better engines.
you mean the IDS MLU i assume?
that does not have better A2G ordinance compared to the GR.1
the PGMs are FnF and signicantly longer ranged then just about any options the IDS MLU gets.
the IDS MLU retains only laser guided bombs requiring it to maintain that lock and it gets the addition of a handfull of SDB Is which are GPS guided and have such a tiny payload they are barely good for anything, they make for a neat distraction on radar i guess.
the GR.1 having PGMs will just make it better in most cases compared to any other of the IDS tornados baring the GR.4. the other tornados get better engines to compensate for having worse ordinance.
to reitterate, my stance is that the GR.1 should retain the Mk101 engines and its better ordinance and it should all stay as is.
If the GR1 gets Mk.103s then, flight performance wise, it will be identical to the 11.3 Tornados but with the addition of guided ordinance. That would justify an 11.7 BR in my opinion (Although I still think it should be 11.3 in ARB) but a 12.0 BR is wholly unjustified imo.
So why did it have Mk101 engines BEFORE the PGMs were reported and added?
Its had Mk101 engines since day 1 when it was if anything. Weaker than the ASSTA1 with a weaker Tpod.
The idea that being able to FnF kill what, 1 maybe 2 AI tanks per PGM-2000 is just an insane justification for it to have both a higher BR than the Tornado IDS, MFG, WTD61 AND weaker engines.
It should be 11.3 with Mk103 engines. Youd get more AI kills just running 12x Mk13s
i am advocating for retaining the weaker engines and the current BR because it gets better ordinance to compensate. it was weaker then the others on release and then it got new ordinance to compensate for that.
i am saying that if it was to get the upgraded engines it would be strictly better compared to the other IDS tornados baring the GR.4 and should not be the same BR as them but as it stands there is a fair trade off, one gets better ordinance, the others get better engines.
The tornados without any guided ordinance at all having a lower BR is just a given, laser guided ordinance playing a role at all in ARB BRs is silly but as of current it stands so comparing it to planes that don’t have any of it won’t go anywhere.
the compareable torandos are the IDS ASSTA, the IDS95 and the IDS MLU, those 3 get better engines and the GR.1 gets FnF ordinance to make up for having less engine power.
its insane to think the GR.1 should both get an engine buff and a BR buff whilst retaining its current selection of guided ordinance.
If it has Mk101 engines, then there is no justification for it to be 11.7. And should be 11.3
None of the Tornado IDS should be 11.7 at the moment bar maybe the MLU if/when it gets its missing upgrades.
If the Mk101 engines are the nerf needed to balance the extra loadout options (which I seriously doubt make any difference in effeciency and were in place before the PGMs were added) then it doesnt also need a BR nerf. If it stays at 11.7 with Mk101 engines and the rest go down to 11.3. Then it can get BOL or Aim-9Ms to justify being at 11.7 (yes it had both)
