Ken V sorry but I won't have YOU lecturing anyone about Tornado (F3)
To recap it was an
interceptorwhose role was to prevent Soviet bombers and missiles, many of which were capable of carrying nuclear warheads, from reaching the shores of the UK.
To do this it utilised an air intercept radar with air to air missiles as the primary weapons with a 27mm Mauser cannon as a weapon of last resort.
If you are really interested, try reading David Gledhill's book "Tornado F3 in focus".
It is quite interesting indeed looking at the aircraft as a complete weapons system. ..available for kindle etc from Amazon...
We're in violent agreement. It was a great interceptor and a remarkable "complete weapons system," but never a real fighter and certainly not an air superiority fighter. The Ardvaark and Corsair II were equally remarkable in many ways. But neither were fighters, much less air superiority fighters. Interestingly, the A-4 was
officially a fighter in a number of air forces. But was it really a fighter? It certainly was agile. Although some corners of its envelope were really scary ragged. It could depart in some nasty ways, which made it difficult to really fly it to its full capability.