Syria Strike Tornados?

[Procopius]

I'd love to, at some juncture, build one of the Tornados that fired missiles into Syria the other night. I've only so far seen one photo of an aircraft said to be involved, showing her with ASRAAM inboard:

 

 

 

My question is, are there any other photos of the aircraft involved in the strike out there? Any where we can see the serials or aircraft letter?

[Hook]

This site appears to show a Tornado with a Storm Shadow:

 

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/raf-tornado-jets-launch-cruise-missile-strike-on-syria/

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[Richard E]

You'll probably be able to find some pictures if you look on any of the main British news sites, for instance the BBC or Sky News or then national newspapers' sites.

 

It looks like the aircraft carried two Storm Shadow missiles on their under fuselage stations, 2,250 litre drop tanks, ASRAAM, a THERMA pod on the port outboard pylon and probably a BOZ or second THERMA pod on the starboard outboard pylon - I've only found one good picture of the starboard side of any of the aircraft so I don't know if they all carried exactly the same weapons load.

 

From the pictures that I have seen it looks like the Tornados involved in the operation may have been ZA556/047, ZA585/054, ZA601/066 and ZD716/084 - that's almost 15% of the RAF's remaining Tornado fleet by the way !

[Britman]

God luck trying to read a serial number on an RAF combat aircraft! RAF combat aircraft are almost anonymous now and with the F35 ( Lightning? ) maybe even more so. 

[Shaun]

32 minutes ago, Britman said:

God luck trying to read a serial number on an RAF combat aircraft! RAF combat aircraft are almost anonymous now and with the F35 ( Lightning? ) maybe even more so. 

Quite easy really as the tail number on the Tornado,matches a serial and now the Typhoons are carrying the last 3 of the serial on the tail so has made it easier than before.  lol

[exdraken]

From the above mentioned site....

These seem to be codes .. no standard serials or markings apart from national ones on operations ....

Edited April 15, 2018 by exdraken

[speedy]

On the initial report it said 4 a/c from the RAF, so I thought Lancaster/Spitfire/Hurricane & the Chipmunk💪🏻

[exdraken]

1 minute ago, speedy said:

On the initial report it said 4 a/c from the RAF, so I thought Lancaster/Spitfire/Hurricane & the Chipmunk💪🏻

And 8 Storm Shadows...what a force

 

Gladiator, Fairy Battle, Wellington.. ....help me 

[Shaun]

Interesting info from Airforces monthly, I love the fact on the likes of Facebook everyone cries keep OPSEC but its all over the media on the net?

 

Of the eight Royal Air Force No 31 Squadron Tornado GR4s deployed to RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus under Operation Shader, four were involved in the operation. The jets are home based at RAF Marham in Norfolk and are scheduled for retirement next year.

The Tornados were among nine RAF aircraft understood to have participated in the strikes on the chemical weapon facilities on April 14. Each Tornado launched a pair of Storm Shadow cruise missiles at the Him Sinshar chemical weapons storage site, a former Syrian Arab Army missile base, around 15 miles (24km) west of Homs. The coalition believed the site was used for storage of chemical weapons or materials for their manufacture.

The Tornados, which come under the command of 903 Expeditionary Air Wing at RAF Akrotiri, were escorted by four No 6 Squadron Typhoon FGR4s that conducted force combat air patrol (FORCAP) missions. Each Typhoon was armed with two AIM-132 Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (ASRAAMs) and two AIM-120C-5 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs). The Typhoons secured the airspace over the eastern Mediterranean Sea before, during and after the Tornados launched their Storm Shadows. Voyager KC2 ZZ343 was available for aerial refuelling to keep the Typhoons airborne for almost three hours between 0330hrs and 0630hrs local time.

It is understood that prior to the raid one of four Sentinel R1 Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) aircraft of the RAF’s No 5 (Army Cooperation) Squadron was deployed to Akrotiri, arriving on April 12. Sentinel ZJ690 reportedly flew an intelligence-gathering mission in support of the operation. The images taken by its ASARS-2A sensor would have assisted identification of the Him Sinshar chemical weapons storage site and other targets destroyed by cruise missiles from allied forces. It is rumoured that ZJ690 was also used for battle damage assessment (BDA) after the strikes.

 

https://airforcesmonthly.keypublishing.com/2018/04/14/strikes-on-syria-tornado-back-at-war/

[Reparty]

2 hours ago, exdraken said:

These seem to be codes .. no standard serials or markings apart from national ones on operations ....

The three digit fin codes have been in use on the Tornado fleet for a very long time and aren't swapped around, so the associated serials are quite easy to find.

 

Here's one source

[Britman]

5 hours ago, Shaun said:

Quite easy really as the tail number on the Tornado,matches a serial and now the Typhoons are carrying the last 3 of the serial on the tail so has made it easier than before.  lol

As Basil Faulty would say, "that's just typical , just when you get used to fin codes and start to ignore them some upstart comes along and does something sensible.( sible?) I ask you

Kuhh!" Just somebody get those Hawk T2 fin flashes straightened out PLEASE!