Italian Service

Italy signed up for 100 Tornado's, 12 of which were to be trainers. This number was made up of 99 production airframes and one refurbished development airframe. Italy took 15 aircraft from Batch 1 including 5 trainers. The first airframe was MM550000 which was rolled out on the 1st July 1982 and subsequently flown on the 25th September 1982.

Further airframes were delivered from Batch 3, this comprised 28 airframes including 5 trainers. Subsequent deliveries were from Batch 4, 27 airframes, no trainers followed by 29 from Batch 5 including 2 trainers.

The serial blocks allocated to the Italian airframes was as follows,

MM7001 - MM7088 for the IDS,
MM550000 - MM50011 for the IDS/T

Further serials were allocated for the F.3's leased from the UK, these were,

MM7203 - MM7211 for the F.3's
MM55056 - MM55057 for the F.3T's

The first Tornado entered Italian service on the 17th May 1982 when MM7003 was delivered to the 1st Central Maintenance unit.

During July 2002 Italy signed a €35,000,000 contract with Alenia Aeronautica to upgrade eighteen AMI Tornado's.  The first two upgraded airframes were delivered back to the AMI during 2004. Alenia displayed the first upgraded airframe, MM7063 at Farnborough 2004. The upgrade includes a new avionics suite, new secure communications equipment and the ability to carry a wider range of weapons and defensive measures. The first two airframes are with the RSV(Reparto Sperimente Volo) which is the AMI's trials unit. There are twelve airframes scheduled for upgrade during 2004 and six for 2005. Further airframes may be considered for upgrade.