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During February 2003, Tornado GR4s from the Royal Air Force Marham and Lossiemouth Wings deployed to the Gulf region as part of Operation TELIC, (the UK code name for Operation IRAQI FREEDOM). As the deadline for war in Iraq approached, the detachments at Ali al Salem AB, Kuwait, and Al Udeid AB, Qatar, prepared for action 12 years after the end of the first Gulf War in 1991. This time, however, the RAF was much better prepared, with new weapons systems and tactics developed after long years of operational combat experience on Operation SOUTHERN WATCH over Iraq and in the skies over the Balkans. Operation TELIC was a high-tech air war for the Tornado GR4 using long-range reconnaissance systems and medium altitude attacks. It was almost exclusively a precision-guided weapons conflict in which the Tornado GR4 Force, its aircrews, groundcrews and support teams performed with distinction.
This striking new painting by artist Michael Rondot depicts a pair of Tornado GR4s on station over the Baghdad killbox. The aircraft are powerfully set against the ominous background of central Baghdad sprawling beneath the dark smoke of oil fires deliberately lit in an effort to mask the city from airborne targeting pods. Many RAF aircraft received colourful nose art during the conflict and these Tornados were no exception; ZA542 'DM' and ZA560 'BC' became "Danger Mouse" and "Brave Coq", and both carried tributes to favourite Scottish Whiskies alongside their mission markings. With their paint finish battered and weather-beaten by the scars of battle, the aircraft are portrayed in a typical Interdiction/Close Air Support fit, armed with Paveway II GPS/ laser guided bombs, TIALD pod and RBL-755 cluster bombs to represent all Tornado GR4 Operation TELIC operations.
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