How useful would a naval Tornado be if the Royal Navy had carriers able to operate it?
Short answerPotentially useful as a Buccaneer replacement, but it would be an expensive carrier-specific aircraft sharing systems rather than the ordinary Tornado airframe.
NotesA carrier Tornado cannot be created by adding a hook and folding wings to the land aircraft. Deck impacts, saltwater exposure, engine support, landing gear geometry, and carrier handling would force extensive structural redesign. The result might share avionics, radar, and program ancestry with Tornado while differing as much as carrier and land variants in a modern joint-aircraft family. Its strongest rationale would be replacing the Buccaneer strike role on large surviving British carriers, not simply reproducing the land-based Tornado at sea.