The delivery of the Tornado-ECR aircraft to the Armed Force took place on Wednesday 8 May
The redelivery to the Armed Force took place on Wednesday 8 May. Testing was carried out very quickly thanks to the close cooperation between Industry personnel and those of the Armed Force involved, for both technical and operational aspects, in the test and verification activities for the acceptance of the aircraft.
The RET 8 contract between the NETMA Agency and the PANAVIA Consortium provides for the upgrading of 25 Italian Air Force Tornado aircraft—15 ECR and 10 IDS—to the IT FULL MLU (Mid-Life Upgrades) standard. This configuration upgrade will enable the aircraft (which entered service in 1982) to remain operational with adequate capability, safe use and improved logistic sustainability, specifically allowing the Tornado ECR MLU aircraft to operate more effectively in support of out-of-area operations, fully integrating with allied air response forces equipped with state-of-the-art platforms. Three Tornado IDS RET8s have already been delivered to the 50th Wing.
The specific RET 8 modifications, introduced at Alenia Aermacchi in Turin, involve the replacement of numerous obsolete devices with state-of-the-art new ones, including the new TV-TABs, the new ESRRD (E-Scope Radar Repeater Display) and the new DVDR (Digital Video Data Recorder). In addition, the contract provides for the configuration upgrade of the aircraft to the RET 7 standard, introducing Night Vision Goggles (NVGs) capability, which allows operations in nighttime environments with the same capabilities as by day, the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), which improves safe operations, the Multi Mode Receiver (MMR), which adds Instrument Landing System (ILS) capability to the Microwave Landing System (MLS) capability, and the Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS), which enables the aircraft to operate in a net-centric mode, typical of 21st-century Net Centric Warfare (NCW) scenarios. As a specific ECR modification, however, the Emitter Locator System (ELS) has been modified to achieve Multi Ship Ranging (MSR) capability, which optimises target position acquisition through the exchange of messages between aircraft.
Work on the remaining aircraft is proceeding on schedule at the Alenia Aermacchi site in Turin-Caselle. Delivery of the last upgraded Tornado ECR is scheduled for the first quarter of 2016.
