Panavia Tornado

The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep-wing combat aircraft developed jointly by Britain, West Germany and Italy through the tri-national Panavia consortium of British Aerospace, MBB and Aeritalia, first flying in August 1974 and entering operational service around 1979 and 1980. Designed principally for high-speed, low-level penetration of enemy air defenses during the Cold War, the Tornado was built in three main variants: the IDS strike and interdictor version, of which 745 were produced; the ADV air-defense interceptor; and the ECR electronic-warfare and defense-suppression version, together totaling nearly a thousand aircraft. It remains the only aircraft not developed in the United States ever certified under NATO arrangements to carry American nuclear weapons, and while Britain's Royal Air Force retired its Tornados in 2019 after four decades of service, Germany, Italy and export customer Saudi Arabia have continued flying the type.