Andy_W
Well-known member
I've not watched it or read up about it, but it won't have been ground RADAR. The Tornado GR4 or GR4A (the only Tornado's in service then) have two radars related to the ground and neither can pick out a person, or vehicle and you don't even get any imagery from either.
They have one RADAR (RADALT, a RADAR Altimeter) dedicated to providing altitude up to 5000 ft, and this provides information to the TFR (Terrain Following RADAR), which basically is an advanced autopilot feature so the jet can fly subsonic at ~50m above the ground, following the profile of the earth.
The GR4 does have FLIR (Forward looking infra Red) built in, but that's for looking for infrared targets in the air if I remember correctyl, so that's not really any use. There is an additional pod which can be bolted on (often already equipped) called TIALD (Thermal imaging and laser designator), this is/ was very good at picking out infra red targets, and pointing out where they are to other aircraft and ground troops, and was what was probably used. GR4A's had sideways looking infrared and IRLS, but these won't have been any use and probably were not even in use by 2010 (as they were ****, and recorded imagery on VHS tapes!). GR4 and 4A's could also use RAPTOR, effectively a high quality/ range camera, also with infrared.
My bet is if they knew roughly where he was, they will have diverted one or two sorties to go and look for him, or rescheduled some, which is effectively what the jets do in training anyway, every day, twice a day for those that are serviceable. So, it's not really any extra cost and probably actually cost saving to use the system, as it's the quickest way of getting there, finding him, or proving where he is or isn't. Effectively it can do the job of 1000 men, in much less time, in the right circumstances (which this seemed to be). Probably good to give some of the pilots some real world training, with low risk (to them), which is obviously useful, but not exactly the circumstances they wanted.
