A pair of Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado GR4s engaged their first Islamic State targets in Iraq on 30 September, the UK Ministry of Defence has announced.
The strike aircraft were conducting an armed reconnaissance mission launched from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, when they were “tasked to assist Kurdish troops in north-west Iraq who were under attack”, the MoD says.
What the MoD describes as “a heavy weapon position” was located using the Tornado’s Rafael Litening III targeting pod, before this was engaged using one Raytheon Paveway IV precision-guided bomb. “Following this engagement, the patrol identified an armed pick-up truck in the same area and conducted an attack on the vehicle using a [MBDA] Brimstone missile,” it adds.
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“An initial assessment indicates that both precision strikes were successful,” the MoD says.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
