"Jim" wrote in :

"Rob van Riel" wrote in message
om...
Chuck Johnson wrote in message
.165.241...
tornado bashing snipped
Combat record: Dismal. Gulf War I. Losses incurred attacking
third world air base defended by aging Soviet Air Defense systems.

Precisely. Losses incurred while flying missions that the usually
very confident US F-15E pilots went on record admitting would be
virtual suicide in their super jets, and that they would be scared
****less to fly if ordered to do so, but which were none the less
deemed necessary. An impossible job for most aircraft, but only a
highly dangerous one in the tornado.

I can't directly counter you other arguments for lack of references
to back me up, but I doubt you'd be interested anyway.

Rob

Actually for reading what the commander of the air war in the Gulf war
said, they were lost because the Brits stuck to flying at Low Alt
penitration when
everyone else had climed upstairs . From what I read it was a
failure in tactics when the brits climed upstairs the losses stoped.




I don't dispute the courage, professionalism or the training of the RAF; I
don't think anyone would.

My point of contention is that the brass of RAF ('High Command'--high
indeed!) is arrogant to a fault. 'They' are at fault for the mission
failure of the Tornado IDS during Gulf War I.
Let's face it: the Tornado was hopelessly inadequate to deal with the known
mission dangers. But then again, not many aircraft are.
Why on earth would you attempt to attack a well defended target at ultra-
low level-especially during daylight? Because you were brave? Or perhaps
foolish?
The RAF brass were hell bent at throwing perfectly good pilots at a
pointless (read: deadly to pilot) target to prove a point. A point to who?
I would guess (I'm sure you'll find this hard to believe) that they were
trying to out macho the Americans.

Yes, the American pilots thought it awful brave to attack so dangerous a
target. In fact they thought it foolish. In the end, the British
capitulated to the American strategy and altered their tactics by choosing
to attack from a safe altitude. Ultimately effective, but at a tremendous
cost. A terrible waste excellent pilots.
That, my friends, is what really ****es me off. I hope they 'yank' (Ha!
there's a funny one!) the cojones off of the general who authorized the
missions and strategy.
Instead, knowing England all too well, I'm sure they knighted him and
bestowed him with an OBE.