Saudi TSP adding Storm Shadow Steath Strike to Tornados
Feb 23, 2010 15:40 EST
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On Feb 19/10, Defense News reported that Saudi Arabia’s fleet of Tornado low-level, medium-range strike fighters will soon be receiving a pair of significant enhancements: MBDA’s stealthy Storm Shadow medium range cruise missiles, and the MBDA/Boeing Brimstone anti-armor missile. The Storm Shadow would give the Saudis a potent long range strike capability against even heavily-defended targets, while the Brimstone missiles will allow Saudi fast jets to serve in an assault-breaker role, or offer reliable close air support for ground forces.
The Saudi Tornado Sustainment Programme has been engaged in a little-discussed modernization of Saudi Arabia’s primary strike fleet, under BAE Systems’ aegis…
fires Brimstone
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The amounts involved in the Saudi TSP are not small, and were significant enough to require specific mention in the multi-billion dollar firm’s 2009 preliminary results. In addition to improved avionics, modernized communications technologies, GPS navigation, and other standard amenities, the aircraft have also been undergoing deeper modernizations that will allow them to carry a wide range of modern precision-guided weapons. A 2007 Flight International article quoted RSAF Lt Col Abdulaziz Al Qdairi, as commanding of RSAF 75 Sqn:
“TSP is upgrading the aircraft so that it will be capable of carrying any advanced weapons available not only Brimstone and Storm Shadow, [but also Paveway/Enhanced Paveway-series bombs and advanced air-to-air missiles].... We hope we will have such as these to make sure our air force has the latest weapons and technology. The goal is to reach the stage that the RAF is currently using with its GR4s.”
The program has been ongoing for some time. A Saudi aircraft being modified at BAE’s Warton aerospace complex in the U.K. was photographed in 2007, taking off on a test flight carrying a Storm Shadow. In September 2009, the Saudis signed a contract with Diehl BGT to equip its Typhoon and Tornado fleets with advanced IRIS-T short-range air-to-air missiles.
