COLOGNE (Germany), April 12, 2018, Author: Galina Zdravkova (Bm), Photo: TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images

The Federal Ministry of Defence announced that the night vision capability is still an issue for the German Tornado aircrafts and that delay is expected to last at least through 2018, reported Defense News.

On one hand, the current display lights of the cockpit are not appropriate for night-vision mode and blind the pilots wearing light-amplifying goggles. On the other hand, the military certification officials do not know if they will be able to obtain the required technical documentation from the seller of the goggles for the purposes of the approval procedure.

Tobias Lindner, a Green Party member of the Bundestag committee overseeing the military, said that “The problems with the Tornados’ night-vision capability have been known for a long time. It is scary to see that these problems continue to exist, and that projects suffer for the same reasons over the course of years. The defence ministry is unable to get these kinds of problems under control.”

The Tornado is a two-seat multi-role combat aircraft. It was developed and built by the tri-national cooperation between the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy and introduced into the German Air Force and Navy from 1981 onwards.

The United Kingdom has already upgraded their Tornado fleet by enabling the night vision option.