As the Tornado completes
its fi nal year of service
with the Royal Air Force,
which is set to become
the fi rst operator to retire
the type, Combat Aircraft
looks at the wider Tornado
community — starting with
the Italian Air Force.REPORT AND PHOTOS
David CenciottiT
HE TORNADO INTERDICTOR
Strike (IDS) variant entered
service before its less proli c
Air Defence Variant (ADV)
spin-o and it has gone
on to signi cantly outlast
it in service. Some 697 IDS jets were
delivered to Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia
and the UK, with 35 broadly similar ECR
(Electronic Combat and Reconnaissance)
versions being supplied to the two
continental European users.
Although in dwindling numbers,
all continue to y the ‘mud-moving’
Tornado. The RAF is set to be the rst to
retire its nal GR4s in April 2019 after a
proli c service record of combat action.
The Luftwa e, too, is well into a program
to replace its Tornados, and in Italy the
F-35 will eventually see o the last wing
of 1980s strikers.In the meantime, it’s business as
usual for the Aeronautica Militare
(AM) Tornado IDS and ECRs that are
now centralized at Ghedi. ‘We usually
deploy to Decimomannu, Sardinia,
three times a year for ring campaigns
lasting two weeks,’ explains Lt Col
Fabio (whose full name is withheld for
security reasons), commander of the
154° Gruppo (squadron), part of the 6°
Stormo (wing). ‘The activity at the range
is required to achieve the CR [combat-
ready] quali cation. Moreover, during
this campaign we plan to undertake
some air-to-air activity too, focusing on
the employment of the infra-red-guided
missile and gun, even though we would
use these armaments for self-defense
purposes only.’
Deci — as this base is a ectionately
known — has been a long-timeA Tornado ECR of
the 155° Gruppo
‘Panthers’ heads
to the range for a
weapons training
evolution from
Decimomannu.38 November 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net