Tornado GR.1A question - SLIR equipment?

[wwrsimon]

Hello all

I'm after some info about Tornado GR.1As. I understand that the GR.1A versions had their cannons removed, the Vinten IRLS pod fitted under the fuselage, and an SLIR sensor fitted with it's associated small windows on either side of the lower front fuselage under the rear cockpit.

I've a couple of photos of ZA394 of 2 Sqn, (which crashed in Northumberland in January 1990), and the photos (both taken in 1989) show the ILRS fitted and cannons removed, but don't have the small SLIR windows under the cockpit.

So was the SLIR an optional/removable bit of kit? Or had ZA394 just not had them fitted when she was lost in 1990?

Cheers

Simon

[flipflopman RB199]

If I remember correctly, not all GR1a's had the SLIR fitted.

On the SAOEU at Boscombe in the mid-late 90's we had a mixture of GR1, GR1a and GR1b aircraft, and the GR1a we had at the time ZG706, did not have the SLIR kit fitted, but had no cannons and was to all other intents and purposes a GR1a.

Unfortunately I cannot give you any specific facts fleet wise, but I can tell you for sure that at least one GR1a was not fitted with SLIR!! :ok:


Flipflopman

[Dan Gerous]

Simon I can't offer any info on whether all the GR1A's/4A's had the IRLS fitted, but it was in a small blister fairing in the centre of the fuselage beneath the cockpit, and I don't think it was a bolt on item.

[wwrsimon]

Thanks for the replies fellas. I've done a bit of digging, and Autumn 1997 issue of World Air Power Journal states that the SLIR side windows started to appear in October 1989, and

"the equipment was late, and slow to arrive, and by January 1990 only eight of the 20 extant Tornado GR.1As were sensor equipped"

I'm guessing ZA394 wasn't one of the eight...?

Simon

[spectre150]

I was on II(AC) Sqn at the time. IIRC, the airframe mods (IRLS blister, SLIR windows, Mauser removal etc) were carried out well in advance of the installation of the recce kit. Like any new aircraft/variant, the early days were frustrating but the system was proven during Op GRANBY.

[country calls]

I seem to remember there were two GR1A on TTTE's books for a short while in the mid to late late 90s(BR-62 and BR-63 tailcodes?). These had the blister, no guns and standard gun bay doors (where the SLIR windows would have been) fitted.

The windows had some nasty substance in them and if damaged required a special procedure to remove the hazard. This may be a reason why the jets flew without and also they would have been expensive kit which may not have been in great supply. Fitting standard gunbay doors was an easy job and may have been undertaken to preserve what few assets there were on on non-SLIR sorties.

[wwrsimon]

Thanks for the additional replies spectre150 and country calls - much appreciated!

Simon

[Carry0nLuggage]

IIRC the SLIR windows were not especially dangerous but they were bl**dy expensive! Germanium, I think, like Sidewinder noses - transparent to IR but didn't go opaque due to aerodynamic heating.:8

At least I hope they weren't dangerous, we tested the whole system for months in our lab. :eek:

It was proposed once that the IRLS would make a good piece of search and rescue kit. As near as makes no difference horizon to horizon cover and the ability to pick out a small hot object like a head against a cold background like the sea. I don't know if anything came of it. Perhaps no-one volunteered to bob up and down in the North Sea waiting to be noticed.