TAILHOOK

[Tequila Sunrise]

Something I've never understood about the British military is how they sselect aircraft, to replace the Lightning and Phantom the F-14/15 and 16 were considered. The MOD wanted twin engine reliability for operations over the north sea so the F-16 was out, fair enough. They wanted a 2 seater for reasons unknown to me so thats the F-15 out. Then someone said that the F-14 was a naval aircraft and so was unsuitable for the RAF, but errrrrrrr the Phantom was a naval aircraft as well . So we end up with the Tornado F.3, a bomber pretending to be a fighter.

[Craig.]

what i find funny is how they consider the F-14 or any plane for that fact a one role plane? i know the F-14's primary role is long range carrier defense, and air superiority, but still. like you said they used the phantom. i think the two seat reason had to do with the amount of time the planes would be airborne a single pilot in the air could make mistakes over such a long time frame so a RIO would mean less workload for both and less mistakes.
as for the tornado variant they choose, its just not even close to what the tomcat is capable of, as you said its just a bomber pretending to be a fighter.