Hobby Master 1/72 HA6711 Italian Tornado ECR Operation Allied Force

The Panavia Tornado was a joint effort between the UK, West Germany and Italy to produce a two-seat, dual-engine aircraft with variable-sweep wings. The Tornado took its maiden flight on August 14, 1974 with the first aircraft being delivered to the German Air Force on July 27, 1979. There are three main variants of the Tornado, the IDS (interdictor/strike), ECR (electronic combat/reconnaissance) and ADV (air defense variant) interceptor. By the end of production in 1998 there had been 992 aircraft of all versions built of which 745 were IDS variants.

In early 1998 Serbian forces began to commit attacks against Albanians living in Kosovo and after much world-wide condemnation these action did not halt. As a result NATO began a response with air attacks on Serbian forces and equipment. This action was labeled “Operation Allied Force” and lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999 when the Serbian leaders were forced to with draw and end the violence. The German AF was one of the NATO countries involved and one of their aircraft was Tornado ECR 46+52/JBG 32 flying from Piacenza-San Damiano, Italy.