To understand how the Tornado F3 ever came to be, you need to understand procurement politics of the 1970s/1980s.
The original Tornado (late 1960s studies) was supposed to come in to versions a single seat fighter bomber to primarily satisfy Luftwaffe requirements for a F18 Air Superiority / Attack Aircraft to replace phantom and a two seat strike platform to replace RAF Buccaneers and F104 Starfighters with the Luftwaffe and Aeronautica Militaire.
The single seat variant was dropped and Bae/MBk/Alenia started studying what was called ECF, the European Collaborative Fighter in the mid 70s, this became EAP/Eurofighter/Typhoon.
The original ISD for Typhoon was supposed to be mid-late 80s,(this wasn't that unrealistic since Jaguar went from study to first flight in 7 years) this presented no problem, the RAF Phantom fleet would get a modest update and soldier on until the early 1990s to allow Typhoon to take up the reigns.
It's important to point out the original Typhoon wasn't the multirole platform you see today, it was aircraft that was to have F16 WVR performance mated to the avionics and weapon systems of a F15 type platform, with a air to ground capability similar to the then current F16A i.e. dumb bombs and Maverick type weapons.
As the Typhoon slipped as multinational programs often do, it became apparent to the RAF there would be a capability gap between the Phantom and Typhoon, so there was a scramble to find a "interim platform to fit the RAFs needs for Air Defence in the 1980s to mid-90s period, the F14 and F15 were evaluated as being too expensive, the F14 had no equal and was the RAFs gold plated option, the F15 also scored highly but there were concerns about the high single man workload, and IIRC the EW suite fitted to the Eagle.
So third inline was what the politicos saddled the RAF with the Tornado F3, and in fairness to the F3 , it was very very good at what it was designed for, intercepting cruise missile carrying, large bombers before they could launch their cruise weapons at the UK. It was designed to operate for extended (3hrs plus) periods far out to sea, on CAP in all weathers. In contrast to the F15 operating over the central front, the
F3 wasn't designed to dogfight.
By the early 1980s with types like the SU-27 on horizon, Typhoon being delayed further and the NATO agreement to develop a MRAAM (USA)and SRAAM (Europe) common family of weapons. Tornado ADV would be ISD by 1986-87 and the Phantoms getting another update to use AMRAAM/ASRAAM starting in the first half of the 1990s. I believe the general plan for the defence of the UKADGE was loosely this:
The incoming soviet raid, of TU-22s with SU-27 escorts, would first be met by Tornados at 240nm+ from the British coast, the F3s would run for home, then Typhoons would engage any escorts or remaining bombers. The next line of defence was the touted Bloodhound Replacement SAM (Later Cancelled in 1992) ((Widely tipped to be Patriot)), any leakers would then be engaged by RAF Hawk Trainers and remaining Typhoons and Tornados with short range AAMs.
Then in 1989 someone went and changed the rules of the game. In the 1990s the Tornado was involved in GW1 (this really required Air Superiority Fighters rather than interceptors) , Yugoslavia and the Iraq No Fly Zones.
Now the Tornado at height was reasonably fast, it just took an age to accelerate, hence the TU-95 trick, I know P3 Orion's used to play the same game during practice intercepts It was much better lower down (FAF mirage pilot told me that the advice on his unit was never run away from a Tornado low down) and the avionics seemed to suffer from the effects of moisture on sorties over 25k, that said , with the snap up capability of Skyflash and laterally AMRAAM wouldn't this mitigate this. With the radar as well the initial F2s did have cemment ballast fitted (IRCC Sea Harrier FA/2s went through a similar phase), however these were used primarily on the OCU initially with the operational squadrons getting the fully capable F3. The avionics techs I chatted with were of the opinion that the MOD tried to push the radar tech too far too quickly, in the late 1990s when the radar hit its stride, it was very very good.
BTW I am not a F3 Fan boy, just someone who worked on it, so I know it intimately.
Canada I am surprised at not going with Tornado either for the NORAD mission, or possibly for the Nuclear Strike/Attack role in Europe. BTW did Canadian F18s ever take on the Nuclear Strike Role from the Starfighter?
Left of field option here, IF the cold war had continued, what about Portugal?
Now I know this sounds crazy, but Portugal has a NATO commitment to provide a long range AD capability out into the Atlantic, if the funding can be made to work, say a deal to pay for the upkeep from NATO funds, and the UK donates surplus F3s after the Typhoon ISD, with Portugal only having to provide the crews, it might be a option.
Sorry for the long long post
