Here is the story from the time:
https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightP...=1&view=FitH,0
https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightP...=1&view=FitH,0
https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightP...=1&view=FitH,0
Basically we need to remember that back in the mid 70s the F-15A was a great little rocket ship with poor avionics before the US spent a mint on it to give them the fantastic F-15C. Further the F-14A at that time had a 'blue water' radar that could see very little overland and the smaller engines that gave it little performance edge over the planned Tornado ADV; it was only the F-14B and the F-14D that had the better engines that came later. Also, the AI24 FOXHUNTER in the Tornado was designed for the ECM war expected in Europe and matched to the Skyflash with improved ECCM over the Sparrow that it was based upon.
So when the decision on Air Staff Target 395 was made for a long range bomber interceptor then the Tornado ADV was the right choice. When the Berlin Wall came down and the F14, F15 and F16 had their mid-life uogrades coming on line the poor old ADV (now the Tornado F3) was just coming into service in pretty much its envisaged capability. Unfortunately, by then, the tactics and requirements had moved along. That said, the introduction of later stages of radar, JTIDS, towed radar decoy, ASRAAM and AMRAAM made the F3 as good as the rest in a shooting war by 2003/4 - but by then we were dabbling in a different kind of campaign again in the sandpits.
LJ
PS. I still think a RAF Tomcat would have been cooler though!
