41sqd to loose GR4 this week?

[Phoon]

From what pilots have said during tours of Marham. Tornado is only funded for Daesh ops. So unless there is a rethink after Daesh have been defeated. The end will come swiftly I am guessing. The MOD / RAF didn't expect Tornado to be in service after the 2015 SDSR. Thats why there was no or only one? reference to the fleet.

I should added there was talk of keeping a small fleet going until 2020 or 2021 (Germans plan until 2025 at least). Like the end of the Canberra life but that would have relied on a lot of factors. Funding, airframe, paperwork being signed off etc

BAE had offered the RAF an upgrade a couple of years ago that would have seen somewhere in the region of another 1500 hours possibly being added to some airframes which I believe was rejected on cost.

[TombsRIP]

There was an upgrade further to the GR1 to GR4 MLU. It was the Mid Life Fatigue Programme (MLFP).
But because of MoD "bean counters" getting their way it only involved one aircraft, ZA612 aka "ZA61new" with the work carried out at BAES Warton with CMU doing some minor rectification work before it returned to service. They was a golden opportunity to get the Tornado with the lowest flying hours on its airframe (certainly in the UK) into service in the shape of ZG773 (BS186). But because it was fitted with flight test instrumentation (FTI) ie orange wiring, it was deemed to costly to revert it to a "standard GR4" (although in reality the RAF are operating "fleets within fleets" anyway). Where does ZG773 end up? As a static exhibit for some exhibition down in London. What a waste of taxpayer's money but no surprise really such is the shortsightedness of MoD procurement decisions..