The Tornado was the result of a very successful joint British-German-Italian collaboration to build a variable geometry strike aircraft that would equip all three air forces in the 1980s. This GR.1 is shown carrying a system unique within NATO to the RAF; the Hunting JP233 runway denial weapon. Designed in a number of configurations to suit different aircraft (though ultimately only deployed on Tornado), Tornadoes carried two large pods in parallel under the fuselage. Each pod carried a mixture of 30 SG-57 runway cratering submunitions and 215 HB-876 anti-personnel mines, the latter intended to hinder repair of the damage caused to the first munition. Whilst effective, it required the Tornado to fly a predictable low altitude path when deploying the system, thus making the aircraft potentially very vulnerable to enemy ground fire during the attack phase. The aircraft shown here is from No. 9 Squadron at RAF Brüggen in 1987 – the first squadron to become operational with the JP233 – and also carries a Skyshadow ECM pod and an AIM-9 Sidewinder AAM for self-defence. The drop tanks almost universally carried have been omitted for clarity of the other stores. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)