What happened to camouflage?
Hello, aviators!
I am not a pilot myself, but I am a former RAF NCO whose responsibility was to supervise the painting of RAF aircraft (1987 - 2006).
Camouflage paint paint schemes were primarily incorporated to all strike attack aircraft and primarily low level attack aircraft that operated in a European type wooded/forested terrain and would be making low level passes to attack targets. The Tornado GR1, (the aircraft I first worked in 1987 at TTTE Cottesmore) is a good example of this.
Flying low level to avoid radar detection, the Tornado bombers would be tasked with racing to targets low level to get off their nuclear payloads. Believe it or not, it proved very effective and did indeed break down the visual image to other to fighter pilots scanning them to shoot them down thus giving the crew vital seconds to select reheat and get out of harms way and to hopefully avoid lock on from weapons systems.
Other aircraft types in other roles would also be painted `wet on wet` disruptive pattern schemes to avoid visual detection from below and above and for the same reasons. Obviously, the Tornado force had to repainted to a desert sand scheme for Op` Granby (the first modern oil war) thus blending in from visual detection. Other surface coatings can be applied also in order to break up and distort radar cross section images (that were applied to the GR1 for deployment to the Gulf) in order to again give the aircrew more vital seconds to deploy the payload and then get away.
The same concept is true of aircraft in other roles like the Tornado F3 (an air defender) with to or 3 shads of grey to again provide a visual blind spot to other aircraft when viewed from above, below and side on. Again, surprisingly, it does work.
The Gulf 1 oil war proved that, in the post Cold War era, that ultra low level flying is dangerous and and the role of the Tornado as a low level bomber was adjusted to other tasks (ground attack recon`, maritime defense etc) thus the grey and green disruptive pattern was not really required as seen now in the Tornado GR4 variant where they deploy weapons from high altitude from laser guided aiming systems thus I don`t really think that the disappearance of the grey and green camo` paint scheme has much to do with cost!
Still, I left the RAF in 2006 and have never really settled anywhere for long and now I reside in Georgia in the USA working as a security guard for pea nuts, with people I can`t stand and miss the UK more and more each day.......I just camouflage my true feelings though and do it very well!
Cheers guys!
Garry Harriman
Grovetown, Ga, USA
RAF 1987- 2006