Panavia Tornado IDS
The original swing-wing strike Tornado — low-level interdictor for three nations and Saudi Arabia · First flight 1974 · In service 1979
The Tornado IDS (interdictor/strike) is the original Tornado, designed by the tri-national Panavia consortium of Britain, West Germany and Italy. The prototype first flew from Manching on 14 August 1974, and the first aircraft were delivered to the RAF and the German Air Force in June 1979. A variable-sweep wing, two compact Turbo-Union RB199 engines with thrust reversers and a terrain-following radar let it penetrate enemy airspace at very low level, in any weather, with a two-man crew.
Of 990 Tornados built, 745 were IDS aircraft. The RAF version was called the Tornado GR1 (first production aircraft ZA319 flew on 10 July 1979); the Luftwaffe received 210 IDS, Germany's naval air arm 112 for anti-ship strike (retired from naval service in 2005), Italy 100 and Saudi Arabia — the only export customer — 96. Production ended in 1998 with the last Saudi batch.
In the 1991 Gulf War the RAF deployed 49 GR1s, six of which were lost. The Tornado is also the only non-American-designed aircraft approved to carry US nuclear weapons under NATO nuclear sharing — a role Germany announced in 2022 it would hand to 35 F-35s. The RAF's GR1s were rebuilt as GR4s, while German, Italian and Saudi IDS fleets went through their own upgrades.
