Tornado Tribute Operation Granby Baptism of fire Jamie Hunter recounts the he RAF Tornado’s unparalleled combat the first glimpse of the Tornado’s usefulness first time the RAF Tornado T record dates back to Saddam Hussein’s and versatility, as it demonstrated an ability GR1 was used in anger – invasion of in August 1990. to adapt as missions and roles evolved. It triggered one of the most impressive As signs of an offensive air campaign became above in 1991 during the air campaigns of all time and included clearer, the RAF deployed a first squadron of first – in what were the combat debut of the Tornado GR1. Tornado GR1s to the Gulf on August 27, 1990. some of the most daring and It was ironic that an aircraft conceived for It was No 14 Squadron, which departed RAF intense combat missions low-level strike against Warsaw Pact forces Brüggen, Germany, for Muharraq, Bahrain, since the Second World War. on the European front was first plunged into complete with a new ‘desert pink’ Alkali combat in the Middle East. Indeed, it provided Removable Temporary Finish (ARTF). RAF Germany (RAFG) supplied the bulk of the deployed forces for Operation Granby – as the UK operation was known – as more Tornados deployed throughout September. Once the build-up was complete by January 1991, three reinforced squadrons, averaging 15 aircraft and 24 crews each, deployed to Muharraq under the leadership of Wg Cdr John Broadbent, Officer Commanding (OC) No XV Squadron; Dhahran, , under Wg Cdr Jerry Witts, OC No 31 Squadron; and Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, led by OC No 16 Squadron, Wg Cdr Ian Travers-Smith. Tornado GR1s on the fl ight line at Muharraq shortly before the air campaign began. ZA396 ‘GE’ (fourth In the background, several urgent projects from left) was shot down by a Roland SAM as its crew attacked Tallil airfi eld on January 20. Flt Lts were accelerated, including improving David Waddington and Robbie Stuart ejected and were captured. Ian Black the type’s self-protection measures.

52 // TORNADO TRIBUTE www.airforcesmonthly.com Baptism of fire Shortly after Kuwait was invaded, British Above: The fi rst nights saw the Tornado crews fl ying risky low-level runway denial missions with two JP233 Aerospace also completed development testing pods. The weapon dispersed bomblets across the prepared surfaces to prevent fl ying operations. Ian Black of the new Air-Launched Anti-Radiation low flying [OLF] and a lot of night work. from operating over temperate terrain. We Missile (ALARM) at Naval Air Weapons “Tabuk was a good location to didn’t have integrated night-vision goggles; Station China Lake, California, ready for No IX continue our work-up. The terrain was they arrived later during the war, but initially (Bomber) Squadron to adopt the suppression everything from Lawrence of Arabia- we had a hand-held system that no-one used. of enemy air defences (SEAD) role. However, type desert to significant mountains. “That meant all our low flying was done amid the deployments to the Gulf, No 20 “I think the low-level flying really hands-off, relying on the terrain-following Squadron initially spun up to adopt this role prepared us well on the basis that we had radar [TFR, regularly referred to as ‘TF’]. ready to tackle Saddam’s air defence network. no idea what we’d be doing when it came However, the undulating sand dunes didn’t Air (ret’d) Mark Roberts, a to operations. So, being honed for low- give the TFR a very good radar return. Flight Lieutenant Junior Pilot on No 16 level by day or night was a really good “The first thing you knew if it hadn’t Squadron at RAF Laarbruch, Germany, back thing for us. The value of the training made picked up a dune was the radar altimeter in 1990, recalls: “I’d done a couple of years us really sharp, which meant we could [radalt] would go off because you were below on ‘15’ [No XV Squadron] and moved to No cope with whatever was thrown at us.” the minimum altitude that you’d set.” 16 Squadron just before Granby started, and Roberts and his fellow crews at Tabuk In fact, this issue led to the RAF rotating we deployed to Tabuk on November 25, 1990. worked together as constituted four- aircraft through a modification programme “We’d done some work-up at home before ship teams, training with everything back at their home bases. “We were very we departed; in fact, the first thing we did was from the Hunting JP233 runway denial well trained, but we were totally relying on to get tanker qualified. As an RAF Germany bomblet-dispensing weapon to 1,000lb the kit. If it detected any failure, it pulled up squadron, very few crews at the time were (454kg) general-purpose bombs in low- at 3-4g to get you away from the ground.” tanker qualified, mainly because we were so level lay-down and loft delivery. close to the East German border, so it was the “We essentially took our Cold War North First night squadrons back in the UK who German Plain tactics and ported them to the Each clutching a pair of JP233s ready to were mainly qualified. We also desert environment. There were, however, cut a swathe across the runways of Iraqi air did a lot of operational certain things over the sand that were different bases, four aircraft from the Dhahran

Above: Tornado GR1 ZA492 ‘FE’ was assigned to the Tabuk wing, led by No 16 Squadron from RAF Brüggen. The GR1s and 1A reconnaissance aircraft regularly carried the ‘Hindenburger’ drop tanks from the Tornado F3. Ian Black Left: RAF Tornado GR1s deployed to three locations for Operation Granby: Muharraq in Bahrain, as well as Dhahran and Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. Ian Black Below: Tornado GR1 ZA465 ‘FK’ ‘Foxy Killer’ notched up 44 missions. It’s seen back in the UK post-Operation Granby. Jamie Hunter

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Intense and terrifying What the Granby Tornado crews went through on those first few nights of Desert Storm has been compared to some of the most intensive bombing raids of the Second World War. Roberts recalls meeting RAF Bomber Command veterans when he returned to the UK. “We collectively talked about exactly the same thing. The fears and the experiences. It was intense and an extremely big part of my life. “In truth, we had no idea what we were getting into. We knew Iraq had an advanced air defence system and a significant air threat, and we believed they’d be up for the fight. When I think about it, it was quite extraordinary what we did when you compare it with the way things are done today – with night-vision goggles, forward-looking infrared, standoff weapons – but actually what we did back then was really advanced for its time.” Roberts flew many of his missions in ZA465 Above: ZA447 ‘EA’ ‘MiG Eater’ of No XV Squadron fl ew 40 missions during Operation Granby. Its ‘FK’ Foxy Killer – a pool of jets meant it was nickname came about because it was thought to have destroyed a MiG-29 on the ground during an just coincidence that it worked out that way. airfi eld attack; it was later discovered that it hit a Mirage F1. Ian Black “We were rapidly turning the aircraft around. detachment and eight from Muharraq were first raids a lot of crews found that the triple-A It was a pattern of get up, mission plan, fly, the first RAF Tornado GR1s into Operation was so heavy that the sensitive TFR would debrief, rest. In the early period we essentially Desert Storm as the air campaign started appear to ‘see’ the artillery in the air and pull got airborne 24 hours after we’d landed. I had in the early hours of January 17, 1991. up over the lead as something to be avoided. ambient anxiety that was already heightened, Led by their respective detachment “Certainly, something caused the aircraft and it grew as we drew towards the mission, commanders, the Tornado package launched to pull up, but we learned really quickly but my recollection is that once I was in the shortly before 01.00hrs local time, headed how to adapt. Generally, we would jet and busy, that anxiety started to fall away. for Tallil air base. Meanwhile, just over an turn in on the target and disconnect It really was an emotional rollercoaster.” hour later Wg Cdr Travers-Smith led his the autopilot so we could manually During the first three nights of the war the Tabuk four-ship towards Al Asad air base, fly across the airfield, effectively just Tornado crews flew 63 JP233 raids on various accompanied by an ALARM-carrying pair. using the radalt, just sub-200ft. airfields, with other aircraft either employing Mark Roberts was to fly the first of his “As I approached the target I remember quite ALARM or 1,000lb bombs that were lofted 26 missions as number three in a four- vividly that the triple-A was being arc-fired. onto air defence sites. Three aircraft were lost ship formation. “I flew at the end of the I disconnected the autopilot and flew low during this period, two of which were carrying first wave – a JP233 attack on Al Asad. I across the airfield into what felt like a wall of 1,000lb bombs and were the likely victims remember as we were flying low across the lead. We flew right into it and your senses tell of Roland surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). desert at a couple of hundred feet we could you that everything is going upwards, so the “I became extremely superstitious and had see the triple-A [anti-aircraft artillery, AAA] visual stimuli is that you’re going downwards. a strict sortie preparation process,” says lighting up from about 200 miles away. “We were doing a co-ordinated attack and Roberts. “The only time I didn’t follow “We commented: ‘Christ, thank goodness I remember looking across and seeing the my process was on the night of January 20 we’re not going there,’ only to turn onto our JP233 going off [on another jet] and effectively when we attacked Al Taqaddum airfield. final attack heading and realise that it was saying ‘I’m here!’ right inside the triple-A ring. “The plan was for us to loft 1,000lb bombs exactly where we were going. There were “Then we went from all the visual stimuli in onto the air defences there. It was a huge over 100 active triple-A pieces there – which the world to absolutely nothing. All I could ‘gorilla’ package with ALARM support and was a piece of information we’d received as see was the triple-A in my mirrors. I’m sure US Navy air cover. We had to replan the we walked out to the jets back at Tabuk. I wasn’t the only person who thought, as the attack and got a TOT [time on target] slip of “The optimum height for JP233 was around spent JP233 canisters punched off with two a few hours. We knew there were SA-8 sites, the same as the ‘TF’ was operating. On the significant thumps, that they’d been hit.” and we knew we’d be flying straight through their MEZ [missile engagement zone]. “We got airborne and our lead crew almost immediately had a flight control problem and banged out. The rest of us headed for the tanker with the number two crew now leading. At the tanker it was really rough; some were able to get fuel, others weren’t and they had to turn for home. “Then the lead crew received a radio message of another TOT slip. They perceived it as a new delay, but we realised it was old information. Believing there wasn’t sufficient fuel to accept the new delay, the lead crew knocked it on the head and turned back. I was in the second four-ship and my leader Above: The then Wg Cdr Mark Roberts led No 12(B) Squadron into . He’s seen with a said: ‘We know what’s happening, let’s Union Jack to mark the 85th anniversary of the RAF on April 1, 2003. Jamie Hunter Collection press on,’ which was the right thing to do.

54 // TORNADO TRIBUTE www.airforcesmonthly.com “So, it ended up being the ALARM team, plus what remained of the bomber four-ships. As we ran into the target the triple-A lit up as usual. As we were about to pull up and loft the bombs in, our radar homing and warning receiver went through the classic pattern of acquisition, target tracking and missile guidance. “Me and my nav’ saw two missiles resolving in our direction. I did a pretty violent One of the fi rst tasks for the RAF Germany crews break to defeat the missiles, dumped the was to get tanker qualifi ed. Here, a Tornado GR1 bombs into a lake and we found ourselves joins a Buccaneer S2 in refuelling from a No 55 in a 5g turn in the pitch black, rolling out Squadron Victor K2 on their way to a target during Granby. Crown Copyright at 120ft; then we did a speed trial on the TFR! We got fired at on the way back too! Tornados began arriving at Tabuk on the north and Shiite Arabs in the south. “I don’t think we were the only ones that had February 10 as bridges and individual The RAFG Tornado units regularly supported a particularly nasty experience – we felt that hardened aircraft shelters were targeted using Operational Jural (Southern Watch) and the Iraqis threw everything at us that night.” Paveway II laser-guided bombs (LGBs). Operation Warden in the north. This became By the end of the campaign, six Tornados had a primarily reconnaissance-based mission, The move to medium level been lost to enemy action, with five aircrew with strikes on targets of opportunity as After the first few gruelling nights, the killed and seven taken prisoner by the Iraqis. threats popped up in the fringes of Iraq. Tornados were instructed to move their The change in tactics during Granby reflected Saddam Hussein’s flouting of United Nations tactics up to flying around 20,000ft (6,096m), a step change in the way the Tornado and, regulations caused frequent flare-ups, with the where only the larger SAMs could cause indeed, other aircraft would go into combat. Tornados called upon regularly. Operation them major headaches. However, much of The RAF almost immediately lost some Bolton in February 1998 saw the activation this threat had by now been diminished by of the most significant Granby Tornado of a second Tornado detachment at Al Jaber, the activities of the coalition SEAD aircraft. squadrons to defence cutbacks as the Cold War Kuwait, which carried sufficient weight to “Switching to medium-level operations ended. It also switched away from the focus force the Iraqi leader into submission and allow on January 22 took a bit of the intensity on OLF towards medium-level tactics and UN weapons inspectors into the country. out of it,” recounts Roberts. “We started increased use of smart weapons. However, The game of cat and mouse continued until, at medium-level high with 1,000lb freefall many aircrews acknowledge the immense ultimately, Operation Telic was launched as the bombs; we didn’t get the TIALD [Thermal value in being sharp and able to cope with ‘second Gulf War’ in 2003. The now Wg Cdr Imaging Airborne Laser Designator] pods changes, including the need to go low. Roberts was the RAF Force Element commander and Paveway guidance kits until later.” for the campaign, as OC No 12(B) Squadron While the new tactics reduced attrition, Enduring Iraqi mission when it deployed to Al Udeid, Qatar. “I was accuracy diminished. The arrival of laser Following the end of Desert Storm, RAF fortunate to be able to offer my experience [from designator pods reversed that trend. The Tornados continued to ply their trade in the Granby] and to be able to look after my people. Muharraq and Dhahran detachments region, policing no-fly zones in Iraq as Saddam “They had all spent time covering the began working with Pave Spike-equipped Hussein continued northern and southern no-fly zones, they’d Buccaneers from February 2 and 5 to persecute seen the threats that were out there, but now respectively, before TIALD-equipped Kurds in we were going back into the heart of Iraq.” AFM

Below: Reconnaissance-capable Tornado GR1As of Nos II(AC) and 13 Squadrons were the last jets to join the war. Having only recently entered service, six jets and nine crews were hastily deployed to Dhahran in the days before the air campaign started and they were tasked with hunting Saddam Hussein’s mobile ‘Scud’ missile launchers. Ian Black

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