Originally Posted by
Buster15
Regarding the Tornado numbers.
The official figures were - IDS 220 ADV 165 making 385. But production ran until 1995/6 and a number of the F2 ADV were withdrawn early. So not 400 jets.
There were additional buys of both ADV and IDS variants for the RAF over and above the original 385. Some may well have fallen foul of the reductions following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact, but the orders were certainly placed, more than one of each variant.
Those totals quoted in the OP certainly bear no relation to the totals in service with the RAF in 1990. But to all those moaning of the loss of numbers in the RAF of now as compared to 1990, EVERY Air Force on the planet has experienced similar reductions, this was not an exercise confined to the uK, or even NATO, it was global.