Tornado: In the Eye of the Storm

by John Nichol

It was decided; the JP233 would be the RAF’s main contribution. It had been developed specifically for Tornados to sneak through Soviet defences then deliver their devastating ordnance via a high-speed, low-level overflight.10 The Iraqi Air Force was able to operate from a number of very large and well-prepared bases, and the USAF lacked dedicated airfield-denial munitions, so the Americans warmly embraced the British offer of employing Tornado GR1s to complete the job. But Nige knew that the JP233 was going to present a challenge, particularly to get enough aircraft over the target to achieve the requisite damage. The weapon had been designed to decimate Warsaw Pact runways. Punching through their thick layers built on dense northern European clay subsoil, the cratering munitions would bury themselves then explode, ‘heaving’ the runway surface upwards and causing massive damage. ‘The tactics we had always used dictated that knocking out an 8,000ft Soviet runway on “Day One” of the Cold War going hot would require one Tornado eight-ship formation, each carrying two JP233s, attacking that single airfield. Those of us who survived that initial assault would return to base, reload, refuel and then repeat the attack about four hours later with another eight aircraft loaded with JP233s. We would have deployed thirty-two JP233s: nearly 1,000 cratering munitions and 7,000 anti-personnel bomblets. For one single 8,000ft runway.’ Nige was told their first target in Iraq would be th...