Re: Spinners' Strike Fighters Thread

[SPINNERS]

BAe/McDonnell Douglas/General Dynamics Avenger GR.1 - No.617 Squadron, RAF Strike Command

During early January 1991 Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney tried to convince President Bush to agree to cancel the McDonnell Douglas/General Dynamics A-12 Avenger but President Bush thought it unwise to cancel such a high-profile weapon system just as United States forces were about to spearhead the coalition in the forthcoming military operations in Kuwait and Iraq. So the project continued in a cloud of uncertainty but with McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics eager to succeed and make the 'Flying Dorito' work and make a profit.

Apart from replacing the Grumman A-6E Intruders with the USN, McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics saw substantial further home sales to the USAF as an F-111 replacement (a win-win for McDonnell Douglas as the F-15E was the only other game in town) and also had an eye on the export market with the UK looking to replace it's oldest TSR.2's from about 1996 and with Australia looking to replace it's F-111C's from about 1998. With some mission goals reduced and/or de-emphasised the Avenger suddenly seemed able to meet the timescales and come down much closer to the budget so much so that the USN finally ordered 350 in 1992 (about one-half of their initial requirement) and were quickly followed by the USAF who ordered 250.

For the export version pitched at the RAF, McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics teamed up with British Aerospace to offer a stealthy TSR.2 replacement with less emphasis on low-level runway attack and more emphasis on medium altitude precision bombing. Although an initial order for 90 was expected only 62 aircraft were actually ordered consisting of two pre-production and 'mission avionics' development aircraft and 60 production machines, initially very thinly spread around five squadrons of RAF Strike Command plus a small OCU. Entering service in 2002 the aircraft saw only limited service in the second Gulf War of 2003 but has been constantly in service in Afghanistan since 2004 where just two aircraft have been lost despite flying over 7,500 sorties and nearly 24,000 flying hours.

RAFAVENGERGR101 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFAVENGERGR201 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFAVENGERGR203 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFAVENGERGR204 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas/General Dynamics A-12 Avenger - No.6 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, 2004

RAAFA1201 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAAFA1202 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAAFA1203 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAAFA1204 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

BAC Thunderstrike - No.6 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force

RAAFTSR201 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAAFTSR202 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAAFTSR203 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAAFTSR204 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

BAC Thunderstrike GR.4 - No.9 Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1974

After the F.3 ADV the Thunderstrike series continued with the GR.4 for RAF Strike Command. This married the more powerful and more fuel efficient Rolls-Royce Sprint turbofans of the F.3 (the RB.275R series -developed from the Spey and Medway engines) with a much improved avionics and nav/attack equipment. Entering service with No.9 squadron in 1974 the type gradually replaced the Vulcan B.2 squadrons of RAF Strike Command and served until 1993 seeing action in the Falklands War of 1982 and also the first Gulf War in 1991.

RAFTHUNDERSTRIKEGR401 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTHUNDERSTRIKEGR402 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTHUNDERSTRIKEGR403 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTHUNDERSTRIKEGR404 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

BAC Thunderstrike GR.4 - "Jaguares" (Esquadra 301) Força Aérea Portuguesa, 1978

FAPTSR201 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAPTSR202 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FAPTSR203 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Panavia Tornado GR.5 - No.13 Squadron, RAF South East Asia Command, 2006

RAFTORNADOGR501 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTORNADOGR502 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTORNADOGR503 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Two different 'IDS' Tornadoes and an 'ADV' exist as add-on aircraft and bloomin' good they all are too! Anyway, this is Amokfloo's IDS that comes in this lovely Luftwaffe Lizard scheme to which I've added some No.13 squadron markings and tinted the canopy (a bit too much I think but you've got to try these things).

[SPINNERS]

Panavia Tornado F.3 - No.602 Royal Auxilliary Air Force, 1990

RAFTORNADOF301 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTORNADOF302 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTORNADOF303 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Panavia Tornado F.3 - Esk727, Royal Danish Air Force

RDAFTORNADOF301 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RDAFTORNADOF302 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RDAFTORNADOF303 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RDAFTORNADOF304 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RDAFTORNADOF305 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RDAFTORNADOF306 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

(My sincere apologies to Denmark)

[SPINNERS]

Panavia Tornado F.3's - No.603 Squadron, Royal Auxilliary Air Force. 1993

RAFTORNADOF304 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTORNADOF305 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTORNADOF306 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

Obviously, the front-line squadrons had F-14D's 

[SPINNERS]

Panavia Tornado F.3 - No.612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, 1996

RAFTORNADOF307 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTORNADOF308 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFTORNADOF309 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Hawker Hunter FGA.9 - No.612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, 1967

RAFHUNTERFGA901 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFHUNTERFGA902 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

Panavia Tornado F.3's - HavLLv31 Finnish Ilmavoimat, 1998

FINLANDTORNADOF301 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDTORNADOF302 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDTORNADOF303 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDTORNADOF304 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDTORNADOF305 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle - HavLLv11 Finnish Ilmavoimat, 1992

FINLANDF-15A01 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDF-15A02 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDF-15A03 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDF-15A04 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

TSRjoe's suggestion of using lo-viz Ilmavoimat roundels struck a chord so I've knocked some up by basically replacing white with grey, reducing the saturation and adding a black outer ring to show it better on a grey background.

[SPINNERS]

Panavia Tornado FG.1 - HavLLv31, Finnish Ilmavoimat, 1988

FINLANDTORNADOFG103 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDTORNADOFG102 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

FINLANDTORNADOFG104 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

My last Ilmavoimat aircraft for a while. Perhaps Panavia, way back in 1980, offered a warmed-up IDS with limited air-to-air modes on a modified Avionica radar.

[SPINNERS]

McDonnell Voodoo FAW.2 - No.500 (County of Kent) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, 1963

RAFVOODOOFAW213 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVOODOOFAW214 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

RAFVOODOOFAW215 by Spinners1961, on Flickr

A few posts back GeorgeC highlighted a few more Royal Auxiliary Air Force squadrons just waiting for the Spinners 'what if' treatment. I might revise the main decal to give a bit more blue and a little less white but it's OK for now.