Powerful AMI Panavia Tornado ECR; Designed for SEAD Missions

Tornado ECR is a variant of the Tornado IDS and is specifically designed for so-called SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) missions. The acronym ECR stands for Electronic Combat Reconnaissance either electronic warfare. The only users of the Tornado ECR are Germany and Italy. The first versions of the Tornado ECR were delivered in May 1990. The ECR version of the Tornado was originally developed as a reconnaissance aircraft which could explore areas with high speed and at low altitude and is used by Germany (Luftwaffe) and Italy (AMI). Today, the Tornado ECR plays an equally important role as the original Tornado IDS variants. In addition to the task of the Tornado ECR the aircraft is also able to fly the conventional attack tactics on ground targets like the Tornado IDS does. The desire to build an aircraft of this class began in the 80s when the Cold War was in its highlight days. After a brief study of the Tornado IDS, it was chosen as the appropriate platform to take on this SEAD task. A redesign of the Tornado IDS was made and the aircraft was filled up with reconnaissance equipment. The new concept of the aircraft would be developed quickly into a more specialized variant of the Tornado. The increasing threat of increasingly sophisticated anti-aircraft batteries of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries created the desire for a suitable aircraft to destroy quickly and effectively these installations. In addition to this desire also the development of anti-radar missiles gained a lot of progress in those days.

The Panavia Tornado ECR would be a platform for electronic warfare in which the aircraft also would be able to eliminate the enemy air defenses directly. The Americans used two aircraft for this role; the Tornado ECR would take this task on its own. The Americans flew during the Vietnam War all these so called Wild Weasel missions. In the United States a specialized variant of the F-4 Phantom was used for these missions which tracked the enemy radars of the anti-aircraft batteries. When these plants were found, an attack aircraft would eliminate the enemy targets. The Tornado ECR was equipped with the ELS (Emitter Locator System) which was designed to detect radar installations. The Tornado ECR is next to this system equipped with the AGM-88 HARM missile. The HARM missile is designed to destroy radar installations. Besides this weapon the Tornado ECR is also equipped with comprehensive ECM (Electronic Countermeasures) equipment. The aircraft will be able to protect themselves during these dangerous missions against anti-aircraft batteries by jamming enemy radar and communications. The German Tornadoes were also equipped with the Honeywell infrared reconnaissance system, but this was already quite quickly removed because it turned out to be not practical to equip a plane for reconnaissance and SEAD simultaneously. The big difference between the Italian and German Tornado ECR is that Italians have no reconnaissance systems on board and the German did. Also, the German Tornado’s have more power in the propulsion, because they have more modern engines.

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