Tri - National Tornado Training Establishment The Tri - National Tornado Training Establishment ( TTTE ) was a multinational air unit based at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland , England , from 1981 to 1999 . It performed training on the Panavia Tornado for the Royal Air Force , Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force . Initially , pilots received four weeks of training on the ground , followed by nine weeks in the air . History . The Tornado was first shown to the British public on 14 April 1978 at RAF Boscombe Down . The RAF planned to buy 220 of them , and 165 of the ADV variant . 809 for all three countries had been ordered , with 212 for the German Air Force , 112 for the German Navy and 100 for the Italian Air Force . Cost at that time was £7 . 8m for the GR1 and £9 . 4m for the ADV . As a historical comparison , a Tornado could carry twice the bomb load of an Avro Lancaster . The plane was chosen above contemporary American aircraft at that time because the F - 16 lacked all - weather capability , the F - 15 had inferior radar and electronic countermeasures and the F - 14 was too expensive . The Tornado was the first RAF plane with Terrain Following Radar ( TFR ) . The German Navy was the first to get the planes . When the TTTE was established , the RAF was concerned it may not have enough trained pilots to fly the planes , due to poor recruitment and perceived low pay . Formation . The memorandum of understanding establishing the unit was signed in 1979 by the United Kingdom , Germany and Italy and the unit came into existence on 29 January 1981 with Sir Michael Beetham in attendance . The first RAF Tornados arrived at the base on 1 July 1980 ; Luftwaffe Tornados arrived on 2 September 1980 ; and Italian Tornados arrived much later on 5 April 1982 . Structure . Allocation of aircraft was Germany : 23 , UK : 19 , and Italy : 6 . Flying training began on 5 January 1981 . It was manned by personnel of all three participating nations , trained 300 crews a year when at its height and consisted of three squadrons of Tornados . TTTE was a unit of approximately 1 , 600 soldiers and 130 civilian employees . The Royal Air Force provided technicians and logistics personnel , the staff and the three training squadrons were manned by the three nations . The post of the Wing Commander varied between the three nations . Units . Staff and students of the three squadrons " ( Tornado Operational Conversion Unit – TOCU ) " were tri - nationally mixed . A - Squadron was headed by a German , B - Squadron by a British and C - Squadron by an Italian squadron commander . " Standardization Squadron ( S - Squadron ) " was responsible for follow - on training , training of instructor pilots and conducting check flights . Theory lessons and simulator training was conducted by " Ground School " . Funding . Cost sharing followed the ratio of flown sorties : 40 : 40 : 20 ( Germany / Great Britain / Italy ) . Closure . In the post - Cold War era and the growing differences in the aircraft variants , the three nations decided that they would be better served performing their own type training . There was also a need to find space for British aircraft returning to the UK from bases in Germany , such as RAF Bruggen , that were closing . Consequently the unit disbanded on 24 February 1999 , with Tornado flying ending on 31 March 1999 . After TTTE , Cottesmore became the base for Joint Force Harrier . The station housed all the operational Harrier GR9 squadrons in the Royal Air Force , and No 122 Expeditionary Air Wing . In April 2012 RAF Cottesmore was transferred to the Army and renamed Kendrew Barracks Precedent for other training establishments . While the Eurofighter project has followed the example of the Tornado programme in many ways , the TTTE model was not adopted . Rather the Eurofighter partners ( Germany , Italy , Spain and United Kingdom ) have chosen to run national training schemes .