Saudi ADV Tornados withdrawn and stripped of usable parts

[Mosamania]

If it was a ground attack aircraft, it could've offered good utility to PAF. We currently lack a true blooded ground strike aircraft.

It is an interceptor aircraft, bought to counter Iraqi and Syrian Tu-16 and H-6 and Mig-25. With the F-15C and the Typhoon acquisition along with the Iraqi and Syrian airforce becoming a shadow of their formerself they became obsolete and a burden on the budget. Only 24 of them were in service in the Saudi Air Force, they were stripped of useful parts to cannibalize on the Tornado GR.4 still in service with the RSAF, so the only thing remaining was the airframe.

One was donated to Taif University's Aeronautical Engineering College and was sitting in its backyard hanger for like 4 years before it was removed I don't know where. I drove by it everyday for a while until one day I noticed it was gone.

 

[Malik Alashter]

It is an interceptor aircraft, bought to counter Iraqi and Syrian Tu-16 and H-6 and Mig-25. With the F-15C and the Typhoon acquisition along with the Iraqi and Syrian airforce becoming a shadow of their formerself they became obsolete and a burden on the budget. Only 24 of them were in service in the Saudi Air Force, they were stripped of useful parts to cannibalize on the Tornado GR.4 still in service with the RSAF, so the only thing remaining was the airframe.

One was donated to Taif University's Aeronautical Engineering College and was sitting in its backyard hanger for like 4 years before it was removed I don't know where. I drove by it everyday for a while until one day I noticed it was gone.

Still good and modern it's not even withdrawn from European air forces if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Mosamania]

Still good and modern it's not even withdrawn from European air forces if I'm not mistaken.

The Tornado ADV has been retired with European Air Forces for a few years now actually.

 

[Penguin]

Still good and modern it's not even withdrawn from European air forces if I'm not mistaken.

F3 was replaced in RAF with the Typhoon entirely as at 31 Mar 2011 Until the end of 2004, the Italian Air Force leased Tornado F3 aircraft from the RAF.

I dont think these Tornadoes were not air worthy. they could have been sold instead of stripped off and junked.

When are they doing the same to its IDS version?

In September 2006, the Saudi government signed a contract worth £2.5 billion (US$4.7 billion) with BAE Systems to upgrade up to 80 RSAF Tornado IDS aircraft to keep them in service until 2020. RSAF Tornado 6612 was returned to BAE Systems Warton in December 2006 for upgrade under the "Tornado Sustainment Programme" (TSP), which will "equip the IDS fleet with a range of new precision-guided weapons and enhanced targeting equipment, in many cases common with those systems already fielded by the UK's Tornado GR4s."[109] In December 2007, the first RSAF aircraft to complete modernisation was returned to Saudi Arabia.

In March 1993, a Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) project of the Tornado was launched to upgrade the GR1/GR1A to GR4/GR4A standard. Upgrades on Tornado GR4s included a FLIR (Forward-Looking InfraRed), a wide-angle HUD (Heads-Up Display), improved cockpit displays, NVG (Night Vision Goggles) capabilities, new avionics, and a Global Positioning System receiver. The upgrade eased the integration of new weapons and sensors which were purchased in parallel, including the Storm Shadow cruise missile, the Brimstone anti-tank missile, Paveway III laser-guided bombs and the RAPTOR reconnaissance pod was integrated.[48][78][107] The first flight of a Tornado GR4 was on 4 April 1997, on 31 October 1997 the RAF accepted the first delivery and deliveries were completed in 2003.[108] In 2005, the RSAF opted to have their Tornado IDSs undergo a series of upgrades to become equivalent to the RAF's GR4 configuration.[