Old colours resurrected for at least one Saudi Tornado at ‘Spears of Victory’ exercise

An official photo issued at the end of the ‘Spears of Victory’ exercise showed one of the participating Tornado IDS aircraft wearing a three-tone brown, green and sand camouflage on its upper surfaces. This was reminiscent of the scheme applied when the Tornados were delivered, and which was replaced with overall grey when the aircraft were upgraded under the TSP programme.

Jon Lake

November 14, 2024

News

Defence Panavia Tornado IDS Royal Saudi Air Force Spears of Victory 24-2

The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defence released a number of photos at the conclusion of the ‘Spears of Victory 24 – 2’ exercise, held at the Air Warfare Centre in the Eastern Sector. Compared to the first ‘Spears of Victory’ exercise in 2024, which included participation by F-16s from Bahrain, Greece and the United Arab Emirates, Royal Air Force and Royal Air Force of Oman Typhoons, Qatari F-15QAs, French Air and Space Force Rafales and Pakistan Air Force JF-17s the latest iteration of the exercise seems to have been a smaller and much more Saudi-only affair.

In the official ‘end of exercise’ photo, participants included the RSAF’s Typhoons, Tornados, F-15C Eagles (2^nd Squadron), F-15S Strike Eagles (92nd Squadron) and F-15SA Advanced Eagles, with support from Airbus H225M Cougar and Agusta-Bell 412 helicopters and from the Falcon 20s of Draken International. Draken Europe and SNC ICT are working together to support in-Kingdom academic research into electronic warfare flying training and operational readiness training – an approach that is aligned to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.