Tornado

Danger Zone!

In Team Yankee

Die Stats

If the A-10 Warthog is individually the 'best' strike plane in the game, the Tornado is tied with the Mirage 5 for the most cost-efficient bomber, only losing out to the 3+ call-in of British Harriers. While an 8 AP Salvo can be incredibly deadly on its own, the 3+ firepower rating is the bite of this plane's bark. Use these to cripple the fighting units of your opponent; tanks and IFVs are preferred but infantry are acceptable. Avoid going for support units: your Tornado is a suicide unit that should be used to trade for as many points as possible. Your opponent won't be able to win the game if their frontline troops become combat ineffective which a salvo template can easily do, creating holes in the enemy's line for your Leopards and Marders to punch through.

Though not as durable as their US and Soviet rivals, the Tornadoes cost merely two points per model-- A little over half what an SU-25 Frogfoot costs and less than half of what an A-10 will burn. You can take a flight of 2-4 Tornados.

It may be flimsy, but 3+ morale and an 8 AP top-armour attack make the drawback well worth it, especially considering the cost.

IRL

Ain't she pretty?

The Tornado is a true gem of NATO aerospace, created by ventures between MBB of West Germany, BAE of Great Britain and Aeritalia of Italy. This multi-role fighter takes lessons learned from the F111 and F14 aircraft. It has served well in Desert Storm flying over enemy air fields with cluster bombs destroying runway and hangers, and just causing general mayhem over Iraqi air bases with the JP2333.

Much like the F-14 with its AIM-54, the Tornado was a specialist with a dedicated weapon. In a theoretical hot war like Team Yankee, Tornados would be sent in immediately to hammer every airfield within a few hundred miles of the iron curtain with the JP2333, a cluster munition dispenser designed to crater runways and cover them with AP mines to interfere with repairs. The general idea being to deny the Soviets the forward air bases necessary to support an attack. To achieve this they would need to fly fast and very low; German and British tornados trained constantly over Wales in the Mach Loop.

"Team Yankee" has thus far depicted the Tornado exclusively as a West German aircraft, but in reality the British and Italians also were using them in the 1980s, meaning that it could readily be marked up and used in Royal Air Force colors, or in those of the Aeronautica Militare if the Italians get added into the game. West Germany had two aviation forces operating the Tornado in 1985: the Luftwaffe (Air Force) and the Marineflieger (Naval Air [Force]), meaning that players could depict them as being with either West German service.

By 2020 the Tornado is showing its age and the Marineflieger, for one, have retired it from service, and the other military forces still flying it will likely follow suit sooner or later. The German Air Force has replaced it with The Eurofighter Typhoon and the F-18 Super Hornet(because the former wasn't made for dropping nukes) and Growlers.(the only armed supersonic EW aircraft in service.) In August 1985, however, Panavia's multirole fighter was still well within its prime, and would have been prominent among the many fighters that would have risen to oppose the vast air fleets of the Warsaw Pact had the Cold War gone hot.