Flash my point in adding the Tornado was based on the fact that they didnt even fly the prototype till 1974 and it didnt enter service till 1980. Meanwhile when you look at its closest counterpart in the strike mission the F-111 we had already produced the F model in 1974. Hell a year after its introduction we were already looking to replace the F-111. The second reason was that if you look at all the aircraft it replaced in its partner countries its hard to find any real improvement in any catagory (especially the F-4). This aircraft could have been very impressive had it been developed a decade earlier.
I have to agree and disagree.
Yeah, the Tornado took forever to get off the ground (pun intended), and yeah we optioned them our hardware (Tomcats, Eagles, etc), and they, unwilling to have to be tied to our supply lines, kindly said "Sorry, chaps. not interested". And because of this, they ended up introducing a barely competetive machine.
However, to its credit, It managed to overcome its initial shortcomings and demonstrated itself to be a capable aircraft... Sure it took three distinct variants to do the jobs it was aked to do, but the fact that they've served almost as long as many of their comparable counterparts is testimony enough.
Perfect, far from it...
But like Flash, I wouldn't say it was the worst ever.