TORNADO TRIBUTE // 61date. The SA-6 was probably the biggest
threat, but they had SA-8 and Roland as
well. In reality, what happened was that
in the first few days of the conflict, the
IADS was targeted so effectively that the air
threat – other than in some specific regions
of Baghdad – was fairly contained.”
Sensitive target
While missions flown by the TGRF changed
as the campaign developed and the Iraqi
military was progressively degraded,
practically every day brought a different
assignment, as Beilby explained: “My first
Telic mission was right at the beginning,
when we changed overnight from Resinate
to Telic. It was classic air interdiction,
long-range strike. It was right up in the
northwestern desert, and a target out there
that was pretty sensitive. It was essentially
a command and control/leadership target –
an individual that they wanted to target.
“We were just one element of a huge
package that had to refuel before pushing
northwest. The weather was terrible. We
pressed towards the target area and there
was a fair amount of confliction in terms
of other assets. We were part of a four-ship
and we stripped out the second pair which
went back, and only two pressed on. That
was an Enhanced Paveway mission.
“The next day we went and did ‘kill box’
interdiction, which meant not knowing where
you were going until you got airborne. We
were sent down towards Basra and were
tasked with close air support of US Marines
on the ground who were up against some
tanks in some berms. We dropped on those
using TIALD to laser designate Paveway. We
had only worked with US troops in a training
environment and I hadn’t yet done a Red Flag.”
Pete Beilby had only joined the ‘Goldstars’
some 18 months before Telic, and the majority
of his training was at low level, mainly as
pairs and four-ships, plus a heavy weapons
detachment at Tucson, Arizona. “The
proportion was perhaps 80% low level,
20% medium level,” he added. “And then
out on Telic, because of the air situation,
we did at least 90% medium level.”Deconfl iction
As well as deconfliction from other coalition
air assets, the proliferation of unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) in the skies over Iraq presented
another challenge. “It was the first time I’d
ever operated with them – we had never donethat during training. Because of the GR4’s
performance, the hard deck was something like
19,000ft; you wouldn’t generally go below that
because of the threat from surface-to-air missiles
or triple-A. The Predators [UAVs] would be
at 19,000 or lower, and then you’d have the
GR4s at 20,000, with everyone else up above.
Our performance when we were fully loaded
meant we couldn’t elevate much above that.
We were probably the lowest of the stack!”
There were other hazards in the air, too, as
Beilby recalled of a mission in which he was
tasked against a tank storage facility up around
Baghdad: “A US armoured division was going
to do a strike against that and we were to
advance and take out some of the armour. It
was pre-planned, so we knew where they
were, and it was co-ordinated on quite a close
timeline for the US armoured team going in
there. By the time we got airborne they had
brought their timings forward, so we had to
be in the areas as they launched their tactical
artillery, which was pretty... interesting. This
was GPS-guided artillery that went up into
the high 30s, so it went through our airspace.
“One of the most challenging things was the
complexity of what was going on in the air
environment. The number of things going on
up there all the time was pretty staggering.” For
Tornado crews used to flying in the UK, seeing
two tankers on a towline was the norm. “[On
Telic] you’d go to the tanker towlines to refuel
and there’d be four racetracks of tankers each
stacked with four tankers and a continuous
stream of assets through those. Imagine what
that looks like at night on ‘gogs’ [NVGs] – just
a serious amount of hardware in the air.”The busy fl ight line at Al Udeid. The base was
home to RAF Tornado GR4s as well as the Royal
Australian Air Force Hornets and the USAF 379th
Air Expeditionary Wing. No 12(B) SquadronAbove right: Preparing for the fi rst Storm Shadow
mission, a GR4 crew from No 617 Squadron
checks the weapon prior to departing Ali al
Salem. Crown Copyright
Left: The transit north into Iraqi airspace involved
regular support from RAF VC10s. This GR4
crewed by No 617 Squadron ‘Dambusters’ carries
a pair of Enhanced Paveway IIs. No 617 Squadron
AFM