Grey Tornados

[Dr Jekyll]

I always thought the ADV Tornados were Grey and the GR versions had old fashioned green stripy camouflage. But the Tornados off to Libya were grey.

Are they all grey now? If so, does this represent different priorities (over the desert not down the valleys) or some other reason?

[Dr Jekyll]

Eric Mc said:

Wrap around started to be applied in the late 1970s and the light aircraft grey undersides disappeared.

Was this for extreme angles of bank at low level, or so the enemy couldn't tell whether the aircraft was banking towards them or away?

[Dr Jekyll]

Sounds a bit like the black and white disruptive pattern they used to put on for Norwegian exercises. The enemy would think a white helicopter was going one way, when it was actually black and going the other way, it would be like trying to shoot down Michael Jackson.

Edited by Dr Jekyll on Sunday 27th March 17:40

[Dr Jekyll]

Simpo Two said:

I do wonder how much faster these jets would go if they were a bit bigger and carried the ordnance inside instead of hanging over all the place like washing. The drag must be significant. Missiles could be on a rotatey-door thing.

I think the F22 carries stuff internally, but that's for radar visibility reasons rather than drag.

[Dr Jekyll]

Ginetta G15 Girl said:

If we ever go up against an enemy with decent Air Defence assets and an integrated Radar and Sam system then medium level operations in an attack aircraft would be suicide. I would warrant that were that to be the case a/c would rapidly be repainted for low level operations.

The Americans rarely seem to fly that low, do they expect to be able to wipe out the enemy air defence then go in at medium level?