August 8, 2002 at 11:39 pm
Looking at Andrew’s excellent Tornado pictures, and an idea struck me. Could a modified version of the Tornado GR-series suffice for FOAS?
For one, it would need new engines-the EJ2000 would suffice.
Secondly, improve the avionics to give it AIM-120/Meteor capability-much better self defense. Hence the Tornado FGR.1
Third-make it stealthier. This could be done by an extreme solution like deleting the vertical tail and using thrust vectoring (a-la NASA’s X-44 program), or by simple modifications (canted twin vertical tails, gold canopy, redesigned intakes-get rid of the Mach 2 performance and you cut weight also by removing variable ramps etc).
Fourth-new weapons such as Storm Shadow, JASSM, JDAM.
Not the ideal solution, but it would be much cheaper than procuring or developing a new airframe. Eurofighter prics would also drop in the UK if they went with this aircraft and cut the A/G capability from the RAF Eurofighters. This is what would probably nix the idea (I doubt the RAF would want to give up the multi-role capability), but it does make for interesting speculation.
SOC
“Peace through kinetic solutions”