Actually, pretty well. They key was designing the F-35 with the final SDD version in mind and only needing minor Block upgrades along the way.

That’s Block 4, right? OK, but what happens with upgrades beyond that point is anyone’s guess. F.e. advanced EOTS. Will it be retrofitted to all aircraft? I mean at some point you move beyond the “initial final” version, if that makes sense.

Per the latest DOT&E report, all early Blocks are at least Block 2B and the rest are 3i/3F. Upgrade kits are already paid for & contracted and the only thing left is to upgrade them during their normally scheduled depot maintenance periods so as not to interrupt their normal duties. These kits are basically adding some ICP cards (no need to replace them all) Updating some Radar & ESM LRUs, etc.

So does this mean the 108 As plus 81 B/Cs as mentioned here will be brought to 3F standard after all? And Block 4 subsequently which doesn’t require hardware mods iirc.

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I didn’t think the hardware was significantly different, & they’d not want to have to ground their Tornados early because they’d skimped on spares. You need a margin of error, enough to guarantee continued use up to the withdrawal date. The Germans should be able to buy modest but useful stocks of spares & old airframes for parting out.

We’ll see how that goes. The recent “rumors” are an indication imho that Luftwaffe leaders would like to move forward and replace Tornado before it 2040 or so. At least the Germans have a government now and I expect a decision regarding the Tornado fleet sooner than later.

Actually IMO it would cost less to maintain those tornados past 2025 as germany could buy off all the surplus spares for chips and get retired airframes for christmas trees. The main problem is mitigating obsolescence issues. If germany is content to fly them as is in 2030 then it would not be a problem.

It’s not that simple.
UK and Italy have definite out of service dates, why would they stock surplus spares beyond that. Their jets are also different. Not much left if anything from Germanys own retired airframes. Suppliers are located in all 3 countries, might become more difficult to convince them to continue producing parts for Germany alone. More expensive for sure. Can it be done? Sure, should it be necessary, the Germans could make everything at home. But expensive.

Suspect that the Tornado is going to soldier for a LOOOOONG time… (mind you, i might be entirely wrong)

The Germans were probably way too optimistic regarding the cost of keeping the Tornado past 2025 while RAF and AMI will have retired theirs. So optimistic they scrapped all but the 85 they want to keep in service. Prices of spares will skyrocket.

The real question is what exactly is there on the F-35 which Germany needs so badly and which they cannot take on with Typhoons.. In my humble opinion, there is hardly such thing.. But, I, too, might be entirely wrong..

Simple, current Typhoon can’t do what Tornado does. Adding that will cost money. Luftwaffe leadership would rather spend their budget to buy something that works than spend it on development. Who knows what they’ll get, if anything, when and in what numbers.

Anyway, help me understand this.. The combat radius of a Tornado launched from Italy is roughly enough to reach the western part of Ukraine. Even in case of emergency they will never have reached Russia (unless assuming a kamikaze type mission).. What’s the use of free-fall nukes, then?

As mentioned, they’re tactical nukes.
But there are options: air-air refuelling, finding another place to land like Turkey or a non-aligned nation. Ejection is also an option if no airfield can be found. Preferably over friendly or at least non-hostile territory. One-way trips with ejection over hostile territory or as you said kamikaze are also an option.* Chances are there’s no point in returning anyway. Draw the circle again with range instead of radius. Oh, and from Ghedi, since AMI Tornados and B61s are located there.

* F-100 units had targets around 1000 nm from base… combat radius of the F-100 was 450-550 nm…

The internal weapons bay just wasn’t used for “weapons” often. Usually it was blocked off by ECM pod, and carried fuel except in the case of the FB-111. Don’t think the gun pod was commonly carried after the 70’s (but could be wrong)

The ECM pod was usually carried on the aft station. Mk 84 could fit dimension wise but was never tested. Both afaik.

Thinking about the F-111.
Useless as a fighter, so not a good choice.

Unless the enemy is far away and has no air refuelling assets. His fighters, let’s say Mirage F1, can’t harm me and my bases at all. Out of reach. My F-111s visit him every night and decimate his forces on the ground. They’re going to have a hard time defending themselves from F-111 night attacks, as would anyone during the 70s.
So depending on the geographical situation, the F-111 is indeed an option.

Viggen is an interesting option. Stick Pratt & Whitney J75-P-5A or a pair of late model J57’s in it and I think you’re better off. It would have been cool with all-moving canards, rather than trim-set, but actuator technology probably wasn’t quite ready for that task yet. I also wouldn’t have minded it less with square intakes. Performance-wise the Viggen was more myth than legend, but there is no denying it had utility.

Right. The J75 is older. The JT8D based RM8 was developped because a suitable engine was not available. The J57 would have been available which is a pretty strong indicator that it was not suitable.
And replacing the RM8 with a pair of older engines is even more ridiculous. Not to mention it’s a complete what if aswell.