Tornado GR4 in non-traditional roles..?

[cokecan]

Pruners,

a couple of Saturday lunchtime cud-chewing questions...

how effective/usable would Tornado GR4 be in the Air Defence/Air Policing role with its normal fit of ASRAAM's, its Radar/Avionics, and as much external fuel as you could bolt onto it?

secondly, how effective/usable would Tornado GR4 be in the role of self-defending Tanker if you fitted it with a buddy refueling store and as much external fuel as you could get on? - and having only ever seen the Sargent-Fletcher buddy refuelling system as used by the Luftwaffe placed on the centreline station, is the centreline station the only one you could put such a store on?

cheers.

CC

[Lima Juliet]

Cokecan

The GR's RADAR is not optimised for air-air modes - the aircraft is a through and through mudmover (which it excels at). To be an effective air defender you need a pulse doppler RADAR which the GR doesn't have.

LJ

[Davef68]

If my aged memory is correct, they did trial the refuelling pod (borrowed from the Germans?) on a Gr1 at the time of Op Granby.