The Federal Ministry of Defence and the development of the Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA)
2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA). Developed from 1970 and named 'Tornado' in 1976, the aircraft was introduced to the German Armed Forces in the early 1980s to meet the requirements of NATO's 'Flexible Response' strategy - a high-tech fighter-bomber that could strike targets deep in enemy territory at any time and in any weather. With the Tornado, however, the German Air Force received an entirely different aircraft than the one it had originally sought. Conceived as a replacement for the Lockheed F-104G and Fiat G.91 at the end of the 1960s, the 'new combat aircraft' was actually intended to be as simple a design as possible for use on and above the front line. The MRCA owed this metamorphosis to a number of factors, the most significant of which was certainly its status as a multinational development project. The aim of this study is to examine the role of the Federal Ministry of Defence in this process. In the process, it becomes clear how political management, officials from the Armaments Department and the Luftwaffe's command staff struggled to navigate 'their' fighter aircraft project through the shoals of multinational armaments cooperation. The result is a fascinating illustrative example of the political, economic and military processes involved in international joint projects, which still characterises the Luftwaffe and air armaments today.
Konstantin Knoll is a consultant at the Federal Association of the German Aviation Industry. He studied War and Conflict Studies at the University of Potsdam.
