The current Tornado Gate Guardian at RAF Marham was removed from its position at the front gate yesterday in a joint operation by the Joint Aircraft Recovery and Transportation Squadron (JARTS) and Quinto Crane Company.
With the retirement of the Tornado GR4 fleet last year it had been decided that one of the final aircraft would be used as a Gate Guardian to commemorate 40 years service of the Tornado Force.
As the Tornado GR1 gate guardian was due its routine maintenance the opportunity was taken to remove the aircraft from its current position. This aircraft will be used as a vital training aid for the RAF Marham Fire Section.
This aircraft will be replaced by a Tornado GR4 which will be resprayed before moving to its new location in place of the current Victor aircraft when it is removed later this year.
Station Commander, Gp Capt James Beck, said “The Tornado aircraft was the backbone of the RAF for many years seeing her service out at RAF Marham just last year. It is only fitting that we should display the final Tornado variant, the GR4, at RAF Marham as a tribute to this amazing aircraft and all those personnel associated with her over the years.”
JARTS used this opportunity as a training exercise for its team of highly skilled engineers. They worked alongside engineers from RAF Marham who had previously worked on the Tornado so were able to offer their expertise on this airframe. JARTS is the only MOD organisation dedicated to Aircraft Post-Crash Management, recovery and transportation. The Squadron holds four Crash Teams at high readiness to deploy worldwide in response to military aircraft incidents for all three services.
