Page 94 - Air Forces Monthly - September 2017

GRANBY TORNADO

Above: A fine head-on shot of ‘Pinky’. The aircraft retained a grey nosecone, the current standard for Last guardians
the RAF Tornado fleet, but the original black radome was standard during Operation Granby. ZG750 was Having received its commemorative ‘desert
delivered to the RAF in July 1991 and therefore did not participate in the first Gulf War. Rich Cooper
Left: Low and fast – still the preferred domain for the Tornado GR4 in a high-threat scenario. ZG750 pink’ scheme at RAF Lossiemouth, ZG750
made its final flight on July 28 as it flew to RAF Leeming to be reduced to spares. Neil Dunridge moved to the RAF Marham Wing, the last
custodians of the Tornado GR4 today. No
12 (Bomber) Squadron flew the jet to RIAT,
with Sqn Ldr Pete Holt at the controls and
Weapons Systems Officer and Officer
Commanding, Wg Cdr Nikki Thomas, in the
back. “It’s absolutely brilliant to be here
in the ‘Op Granby’ jet,” she told AFM at the
show. “When you only have one special
[marked] jet it’s bound to be the one that
breaks, so we tried to bring it last year
but we couldn’t make it happen – but it’s
made it all the more special this year.
“I did feel a bit of nervousness in bringing
the jet here – I really, really wanted it to
happen to show it to the guys and girls.
We are managing all of the airframe
hours, and this one has just a matter
of hours of life left in the airframe.”
“The Tornado has been on continuous
operations for 25 years,” Wg Cdr Thomas
added. “We painted it in the Granby colour
to commemorate that moment. Our out
of service date is in April 2019 but we are
still very busy,” noting how, despite only
having three squadrons remaining, the
TGRF remains on constant deployment
currently as part of Operation Shader,
the UK’s commitment to the fight against
so-called Islamic State (IS). Despite the
impending retirement, it’s still very much

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