Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force invented the independent air force, and has spent a century arguing about what one is for — an argument that in 2026 has produced a fighter force a third the size of its 1990 self, a nuclear mission handed back after twenty-seven years, and a command that has just added the word Space to its name.
The Royal Air Force story: the first independent air force, and the argument about what it is for
1918–1939: Trenchard, air control and the price of independence
The Royal Air Force came into existence at midnight on 1 April 1918, when the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service were merged into a third armed service with its own ministry, its own uniform and its own seat at the strategic table. Nothing like it had existed anywhere. The immediate cause was the Gotha bomber raids on London in 1917 and the report that Jan Smuts wrote in response, which argued that air power had become an instrument in its own right rather than an auxiliary of armies and fleets. Every independent air force in the world descends from that argument. It is the single most important structural fact about the RAF, and it explains almost everything that follows — including the fact that the service has had to justify its separate existence, repeatedly and expensively, ever since.
Independence was not secure in 1919. The Admiralty and the War Office both wanted their aviation back, and Hugh Trenchard, Chief of the Air Staff for most of the 1920s, kept the RAF alive by making it cheap and by making it useful to the Empire. The instrument was air control: policing mandated and colonial territory by aeroplane rather than by garrison. At the Cairo Conference of 1921 Trenchard proposed that the RAF take over military command in Iraq, and on 1 October 1922 an airman directed all military operations in a country for the first time. The same method was used on the North-West Frontier, in Aden, Transjordan and Sudan. The RAF’s own Air Power Review has since examined it honestly: the targeting held whole communities responsible for the acts of individuals, the bombing was inaccurate — in one November 1928 operation 102 of 182 bombs missed — and the effect wore off as populations learned to disperse and warn each other. The RAF’s independence was bought, in part, by bombing villages. That belongs in the story.
1940–1945: the Dowding System, and 55,573 dead in Bomber Command
The Battle of Britain is the RAF’s founding legend, and the truthful version is more impressive than the myth. What won it was not the Spitfire but the Dowding System: Chain Home radar, the Observer Corps, filter rooms, sector stations and a telephone network that turned a raid plot into an interception order in minutes. It was the world’s first integrated air defence system and no other country had one. The RAF counts 2,945 aircrew as having flown in the battle between 10 July and 31 October 1940; 544 of them were killed during it, and 312 RAF ground personnel died on the ground. Roughly one in five of the aircrew were not British — 145 Poles, 127 New Zealanders, 112 Canadians, 88 Czechoslovaks and men from a dozen other countries. Both sides overclaimed victories wildly. Hugh Dowding and Keith Park, who had run the battle, were both removed from their posts within weeks of winning it, in the aftermath of the Big Wing dispute with Trafford Leigh-Mallory.
Then came the part the RAF finds hardest to talk about. Bomber Command lost 55,573 aircrew killed out of roughly 125,000 who served — a death rate near 45 per cent, worse than any other major arm of the British forces in either world war, and worse than the chance a British infantry subaltern had on the Western Front. The Imperial War Museum’s figures put it plainly: 51 per cent of aircrew were killed on operations, 12 per cent killed or wounded in accidents, 13 per cent taken prisoner, and 24 per cent came through unscathed. The area bombing directive of February 1942 and Arthur Harris’s campaign against German cities killed hundreds of thousands of civilians; Dresden, on 13–15 February 1945, remains the argument’s sharpest point. The argument has not been settled and this page will not settle it. What is not in dispute is how the crews were treated afterwards: no campaign medal until the Bomber Command Clasp was announced in December 2012, and no memorial until the one in Green Park was unveiled in June the same year.
1948–1969: the V-force, Sandys and the deterrent given away
From 1955 the RAF held the British nuclear deterrent. The V-force — Valiant, Vulcan, Victor — carried Blue Danube, then Yellow Sun, then the Blue Steel stand-off missile, and for fourteen years the country’s survival rested on bombers at fifteen minutes’ readiness. Two decisions ended that. Duncan Sandys’s Defence White Paper of 1957 declared that missiles would replace manned fighters, cancelled a generation of British aeroplanes and did lasting damage to the industry. The American cancellation of Skybolt in December 1962 and the Nassau agreement that followed handed the deterrent to the Royal Navy, and when Polaris took over in 1969 the RAF’s strategic role was finished. It kept tactical nuclear weapons — the WE.177 — until the last of them were withdrawn on 22 April 1998, after which Britain had no air-delivered nuclear weapon at all. That is the gap the 2025 F-35A decision closes.
1965–1991: TSR-2, the Cold War in Germany, and a war fought at fifty feet
TSR-2 is the other wound, and it is heavily mythologised. The aircraft first flew on 27 September 1964, was cancelled in the Budget of 6 April 1965, and the jigs and tooling were destroyed; two airframes survive, at Duxford and Cosford. What is documented is the decision, the stated cost grounds and the destruction of the tooling. What is not documented, and should not be asserted, is the long list of claims about deliberate sabotage and American pressure that has grown around it. Meanwhile the real RAF of the 1960s to 1980s was a large, unglamorous force in Germany: Canberras, then Phantoms, Buccaneers, Harriers and Jaguars flying at fifty feet under the weather, with Lightnings and later Tornado F3s on air defence. In 1982 Vulcans flew the Black Buck missions to Port Stanley, almost 6,600 nautical miles with up to eleven Victor tankers in the chain — the longest-range bombing raids anyone had flown. In 1991 the RAF put 157 aircraft into the Gulf and lost six Tornado GR1s in action in a fortnight of low-level airfield attacks.
1991–2024: the expeditionary decades, and the aircraft that were not replaced
The quarter-century after 1991 was one long expeditionary campaign — the Iraqi no-fly zones, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Iraq again, Libya, and then Daesh — and it was fought by a force that kept shrinking. Over Libya in 2011 the RAF flew about 3,000 sorties and struck 640 targets with 945 people in theatre. Over Iraq and Syria from 2014 it struck roughly 1,400 targets in more than 10,000 sorties. But the equipment decisions of those years were brutal. The 2010 review retired the Harrier and the Nimrod MR2 together and cancelled the Nimrod MRA4, whose completed airframes were cut up at Woodford; the National Audit Office put the waste at 3.4 billion pounds and the United Kingdom then went nine years without a maritime patrol aircraft. The Sentry fleet went in 2021 before its replacement arrived. The Hercules went in 2023. The Defence Committee’s 2023 report called the Wedgetail cut from five aircraft to three "the most perverse" decision in the 2021 command paper: a 40 per cent capability cut for a 12 per cent saving.
2025–2026: a nuclear role returns, and a command changes its name
That is the RAF that 2025 and 2026 inherited. It has 31,392 regulars, 124 Typhoons of which 111 are in service, 47 F-35Bs shared with the Royal Navy, three Wedgetails, nine Poseidons, three Rivet Joints and eight C-17s. It has more combat aircraft on the books than at any point since 2019 and fewer than half the squadrons it had in 1990. Its fast-jet training pipeline still holds 48 of 119 students between courses. Its Red Arrows fly Hawk T1s built in the 1970s with no replacement yet chosen. Against that, 2025 and 2026 have brought real movement: the Strategic Defence Review of June 2025, the announced purchase of twelve F-35As alongside a decision to rejoin NATO’s nuclear sharing mission — the first British air-delivered nuclear role since 1998 — Protector replacing Reaper, the first Wedgetail at Lossiemouth in May 2026, more than 8 billion pounds for the Global Combat Air Programme, and on 1 September 2026 Air Command becoming Air and Space Command. Whether a service of this size can do all of it at once is the question the next Parliament will answer.
The Royal Air Force in numbers
Service
- Native name
- Royal Air ForceMotto "Per Ardua ad Astra" — through adversity to the stars. Known universally as the RAF
- Founded
- 1 April 1918The world’s first independent air force, created by merging the Royal Flying Corps (1912) and the Royal Naval Air Service, on the recommendation of the Smuts report after the Gotha raids on London. Hugh Trenchard had been appointed the first Chief of the Air Staff on 18 January 1918
- Part of
- British Armed ForcesOne of three services under the Ministry of Defence. The Fleet Air Arm belongs to the Royal Navy and the Army Air Corps to the British Army; the Lightning Force and the helicopter force are jointly manned
- Headquarters
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- Air and Space Command — RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
- The Air Staff — Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, London
Air Command was redesignated Air and Space Command on 1 September 2026. High Wycombe is the operational headquarters; the Chief of the Air Staff and the Air Staff sit in Whitehall
- Chief of the Air Staff
- Air Chief Marshal Sir Harv SmythIn post since 29 August 2025. A former Harrier pilot and weapons instructor, he commanded No. 4 Squadron and No. 1 Group and was the Ministry of Defence’s first Director Space
- Secretary of State for Defence
- The Rt Hon Wes Streeting MPAppointed 20 July 2026. The Chief of the Air Staff is accountable to the Secretary of State for the effectiveness, efficiency and morale of the RAF
Strength
- Regular personnel
- 31,392UK Regular Forces at 1 July 2026, up 2.8 per cent on the year. All RAF service personnel including reserves: 35,978
- Trained strength
- 27,851Full Time Trained Strength at 1 July 2026: 6,997 officers and 20,854 other ranks. The Ministry of Defence no longer publishes an RAF workforce requirement, so no surplus or deficit against establishment can be calculated from the official tables
- Reserves
-
- Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and Royal Auxiliary Air Force — 3,097
- Serving ex-regular Air Force Reserve — 1,288
- Sponsored Reserve — 201
All at 1 July 2026. The Royal Auxiliary Air Force grew from 29 squadrons to 32 between 2025 and 2026, the only formation growth in the service
- Combat aircraft
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- Typhoon FGR4 and T3 — 124 on charge, 111 in service
- Lightning F-35B — 47, jointly manned with the Royal Navy
At 1 April 2026. Typhoon holdings have fallen from 137 in 2024 as the Tranche 1 aircraft are scrapped; Lightning has risen from 35
- Fixed-wing aircraft
- 507 across the armed forces323 of them in service at 1 April 2026. The Ministry of Defence’s equipment table is tri-service and does not split RAF from Royal Navy and Army holdings; almost all fixed-wing types in it are RAF
- Uncrewed aircraft
- 189 across the armed forces148 in service at 1 April 2026, including 16 Protector RG1 with nine in service. Reaper, which had been nine aircraft a year earlier, is gone
- Defence budget
- £62.0 billion in 2025–26Rising to £79.1 billion by 2029–30. NATO put UK defence spending at 2.3 per cent of GDP in 2025 and expected 2.6 per cent in 2026; the commitments are 2.5 per cent by 2027, 3 per cent in the next Parliament and 3.5 per cent by 2035. No separate RAF budget line is published
- Recruitment and retention
- A formal inquiry, and a training pipeline that still holds students
- 2020–21: 161 women and ethnic minority candidates accelerated onto initial training ahead of others; 31 men missed a 5,000 pound joining bonus
- 29 June 2023: the non-statutory inquiry reported; the Chief of the Air Staff apologised unreservedly and accepted all twelve recommendations
- 1 June 2026: 48 of 119 fast-jet trainees were on holdover between courses or waiting for an operational conversion unit
More than 300 personnel were held in the flying training pipeline in September 2022, and the Defence Committee called the delays "completely unacceptable" in 2023.
Infrastructure
- RAF formations
- 104 squadrons and equivalent unitsAt 1 April 2026: 43 flying support, 3 battlespace management, 23 air security and readiness, 11 communications and 24 engineering and logistics. A further 32 Royal Auxiliary Air Force units and 4 sponsored reserve units sit alongside them
- Flying squadrons
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- Combat air — 9
- Operational conversion and evaluation — 13
- Flying and operational training support — 7
- Air transport and air-to-air refuelling — 6
- Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — 4
- Remotely piloted aircraft — 3
- Airborne command and control — 1
At 1 April 2026. Training squadrons fell from 10 to 7 in a year while conversion and evaluation units rose from 11 to 13
- Main flying stations
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- RAF Lossiemouth — Typhoon, Poseidon, Wedgetail
- RAF Coningsby — Typhoon, Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
- RAF Marham — Lightning Force
- RAF Brize Norton — Atlas, Voyager, Globemaster
- RAF Waddington — Rivet Joint, Shadow, Protector, Red Arrows
- RAF Odiham — Chinook
- RAF Valley — fast-jet training
- RAF Benson, Shawbury, Cranwell, Wittering, Leeming, Honington, Northolt
Overseas: RAF Akrotiri in the Sovereign Base Area in Cyprus, RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falklands, RAF Gibraltar and RAF Ascension Island. Stations, not bases — the prefix is part of the name
- Quick Reaction Alert
- Two stations, 24 hours a dayTyphoons at RAF Lossiemouth cover the north and RAF Coningsby the south, with Voyager tanker support from Brize Norton. A separate Typhoon detachment holds QRA in the Falkland Islands
- Display teams
- The Red ArrowsThe Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, based at RAF Waddington, flying Hawk T1s expected to last to the end of the 2029 display season. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby flies Spitfires, Hurricanes, a Lancaster and a Dakota
- Space
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- No. I Space Operations Squadron — RAF High Wycombe
- No. II Space Warning Squadron — RAF Fylingdales
- No. III Space Effects Squadron — announced 23 September 2026
Air Command became Air and Space Command on 1 September 2026. The RAF has been in the business since the ballistic missile early warning station at Fylingdales in 1963 and the launch of Skynet 1A in 1969
How the Royal Air Force is organised
Four groups under Air and Space Command. No. 1 Group holds the front line — fast jets, transport, tankers and surveillance — No. 11 Group commands the air operations and the air defence of the United Kingdom, No. 2 Group runs the bases and the support force, and No. 22 Group trains everyone. The Lightning Force is manned jointly with the Fleet Air Arm, and the Chinooks serve under Joint Helicopter Command rather than under the RAF alone.
The Air Staff
The Chief of the Air Staff and the Air Staff inside the Ministry of Defence: policy, programme, budget and the RAF’s seat among the Chiefs of Staff.
Air and Space Command
The RAF’s operational headquarters, renamed from Air Command on 1 September 2026. The four groups report to it.
No. 1 Group
The combat air force, the air mobility force, the surveillance and reconnaissance force and the Air and Space Warfare Centre: Typhoon, Lightning, Poseidon, Wedgetail, Rivet Joint, Voyager, Atlas and C-17.
No. 2 Group
The people and the places: the air bases themselves, force protection, the RAF Regiment, the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, medical, logistics and communications units.
No. 11 Group
Command and control of air operations worldwide, the air defence of the United Kingdom through the National Air and Space Operations Centre, and 83 Expeditionary Air Group in the Middle East. Re-formed on 1 November 2018.
No. 22 Group
Officer, recruit and aircrew training for the RAF and specialist training for all three services, the RAF College and the Air Cadets.
Joint Helicopter Command
A tri-service command in which the RAF’s Chinook squadrons serve alongside Army and Royal Navy helicopters.
What the Royal Air Force flies today
Every type on charge, linked to its Book of Beasts page where one exists. Counts are aircraft on the books, not aircraft available on a given day.
| Type | Role | In service | Since | Units | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4In service | Multirole fighter | 124 | 2003 | — | 124 airframes on charge at 1 April 2026, of which 111 were in service — down from 137 on charge in 2024.
MoreAt 1 July 2025 the fleet was four Tranche 1, 67 Tranche 2 and 40 Tranche 3 aircraft, and 26 of the 30 Tranche 1 machines had already been scrapped. |
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| Lockheed Martin Lightning F-35BIn service | Stealth multirole fighter, short take-off and vertical landing | 47 | 2018 | — | 47 on charge at 1 April 2026, all of them counted as in service, up from 35 two years earlier. | |
| Boeing Poseidon MRA1In service | Maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare | 9 | 2020 | — | Nine on charge and nine in service at 1 April 2026 — the figure has not moved since 2022. | |
| Boeing Wedgetail AEW1In service | Airborne early warning and control | 3 | 2026 | — | Three aircraft. Five were ordered in 2019 for about 1.98 billion dollars and the order was cut to three in the 2021 Integrated Review.
MoreThe type does not yet appear as a line in the Ministry of Defence’s 2026 equipment statistics, so there is no official in-service count. |
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| Boeing Airseeker RC-135W Rivet JointIn service | Signals intelligence | 3 | 2013 | — | Three on charge and three in service at 1 April 2026. | |
| Beechcraft Shadow R1In service | Tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance | 8 | 2009 | — | Eight on charge at 1 April 2026 with five in service, down from six in service a year earlier. | |
| General Atomics Protector RG1In service | Armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, remotely piloted | 16 | 2025 | — | 16 on charge at 1 April 2026 with nine in service — the first year the type appears in the Ministry of Defence’s statistics. | |
| Airbus Atlas C1In service | Tactical and strategic airlift | 22 | 2014 | — | 22 on charge and 22 in service at 1 April 2026, the full order. | |
| Boeing Globemaster C-17AIn service | Strategic airlift | 8 | 2001 | — | Eight on charge and eight in service at 1 April 2026; the figure has not changed in five years. | |
| Airbus Voyager KC2/KC3In service | Air-to-air refuelling and strategic transport | 14 | 2012 | — | 14 on charge and 14 in service at 1 April 2026.
MoreThe RAF describes a core fleet of eight military-registered aircraft plus one on the civil register, with five more available commercially and recallable. |
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| Dassault Envoy IV CC1In service | Command support air transport | 2 | 2022 | — | Two on charge and two in service at 1 April 2026. | |
| Boeing Chinook HC6AIn service | Heavy-lift support helicopter | 45 | 1980 | — | 45 on charge at 1 April 2026 with 36 in the effective forward fleet, down from 59 on charge in 2022.
MoreJanes, reading the 2026 Defence Investment Plan, counted about 51 airframes in three marks — 8 HC5, 14 HC6 and about 29 HC6A. The MoD statistic is the later and lower figure and is the one used here. |
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| Airbus Jupiter HC2In service | Light utility helicopter | 6 | 2025 | — | Six aircraft. The type is too new to appear separately in the 2026 equipment tables, where the Jupiter line is the seven training HT1s. | |
| BAE Systems Hawk T2In service | Advanced fast-jet trainer | 28 | 2009 | — | 28 on charge and 28 in service at 1 April 2026, unchanged since 2022. | |
| BAE Systems Hawk T1In service | Display and support jet trainer | 24 | 1976 | — | 24 on charge at 1 April 2026 with 18 in service, down from 67 on charge as recently as 1 April 2024. | |
| Beechcraft Texan T1In service | Basic fast-jet trainer | 14 | 2018 | — | 14 on charge at 1 April 2026. No in-service figure is published because the aircraft is operated under an availability contract. | |
| Grob Prefect T1In service | Elementary flying trainer | 23 | 2016 | — | 23 on charge at 1 April 2026. Operated under an availability contract, so no in-service figure is published. | |
| Embraer Phenom T1In service | Multi-engine pilot trainer | 5 | 2016 | — | Five on charge at 1 April 2026. Operated under an availability contract, so no in-service figure is published. | |
| Grob Tutor T1In service | Elementary trainer and air experience | 91 | 1999 | — | 91 on charge at 1 April 2026. This is the tri-service figure; no in-service count is published for aircraft on availability contracts. | |
| Grob Viking T1In service | Glider, air cadet training | 81 | 1984 | — | 81 on charge at 1 April 2026 with 54 in service, the highest in-service figure since 2023. | |
| Airbus Juno HT1In service | Basic helicopter trainer | 29 | 2016 | — | 29 on charge at 1 April 2026. Operated under an availability contract, so no in-service figure is published. | |
| Airbus Jupiter HT1In service | Advanced helicopter trainer | 7 | 2016 | — | Seven on charge at 1 April 2026. Operated under an availability contract, so no in-service figure is published. |
On order
| Type | Ordered | First delivery | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lockheed Martin Lightning F-35AOn order | 12 | Announced on 25 June 2025 and the most significant change to the RAF’s role in a generation: the F-35A will be available to fly NATO’s nuclear deterrence mission in a crisis, the first British air-delivered nuclear capability since the WE.177 was withdrawn in 1998.
MoreThe aircraft go to No. 207 Squadron, the operational conversion unit at RAF Marham, where their longer range and lower maintenance burden also make them better trainers than the F-35B. The warheads would be American B61-12 weapons held under NATO arrangements, not British ones. |
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| Lockheed Martin Lightning F-35BOn order | 15 | The rest of the 27-aircraft second phase announced in June 2025.
MoreBritain’s declared headmark for the programme remains 138 aircraft of all marks across its life, a figure first stated in 2015 and never formally revised, against 47 on charge at 1 April 2026. |
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| Boeing Chinook H-47(ER)On order | 14 | 2028 | Fourteen extended-range Chinooks with a digital cockpit and automatic flight control system, contracted in March 2024 for delivery between 2028 and 2032.
MoreThe 1.4 billion pound programme was announced in May 2021 with deliveries then promised from 2026, so it has slipped about three years. The 2026 Defence Investment Plan adds a second tranche in the 2030s and confirms that the 29 HC6As go by 2030, which leaves a gap in heavy lift in between. |
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| Global Combat Air Programme (Tempest)On order | — | 2035 | A sixth-generation crewed fighter being developed with Japan and Italy under a treaty signed in December 2023 and ratified by the United Kingdom in October 2024, to replace the Typhoon from 2035.
MoreThe Ministry of Defence had committed 2 billion pounds since 2021 and budgeted more than 12 billion over the next decade; the Defence Investment Plan of June 2026 put more than 8 billion pounds into the next four years. A flying demonstrator is in final assembly for a first flight in 2027. No number of aircraft has been announced. |
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| Collaborative Combat AircraftOn order | — | A national programme worth 300 million pounds in the 2026 Defence Investment Plan to develop an autonomous aircraft to fly alongside crewed fighters, with a demonstrator expected by 2030.
MoreNo type, quantity or in-service date has been announced. |
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| Military jet trainer, type not selectedOn order | — | The Defence Investment Plan of June 2026 committed 360 million pounds to recapitalise the military jet training system, which covers both the fast-jet training fleet and the Red Arrows’ Hawk T1s.
MoreIt deliberately does not name an aircraft. The Boeing-Saab T-7A Red Hawk, the Leonardo M-346 and the Korean T-50 remain in contention, and UK workshare is a live political issue. |
Every type the Royal Air Force has retired
84 types, from the Avro 504 to the General Atomics Reaper MQ-9A. Peak figures are airframes taken on charge over the whole service life, not fleet strength on any one date.
| Type | Role | Peak | Served | Replaced by | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Atomics Reaper MQ-9A | Armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, remotely piloted | 9 | 2007–2025 | Protector RG1 | Nine on charge at 1 April 2025 and none a year later. | |
| Airbus Puma HC1/HC2 | Medium support helicopter | 20 | 1971–2025 | Jupiter HC2 and other types | 20 on charge at 1 April 2025 with none in the forward fleet, and gone entirely by 2026. | |
| Lockheed Hercules C1/C3/C4/C5 | Tactical airlift | — | 1967–2023 | Atlas C1 | 13 C-130J on charge at 1 April 2023 and none a year later. | |
| Bell Griffin HT1/HAR2 | Utility and training helicopter | 3 | 1997–2023 | Jupiter HT1 and Jupiter HC2 | Three on charge at 1 April 2022 and none a year later. | |
| British Aerospace 146 CC2/C3 | Command support and tactical transport | — | 1986–2022 | Envoy IV CC1 | Four aircraft in No. XXXII (The Royal) Squadron service, retired in 2022. | |
| Boeing Sentry AEW1 | Airborne early warning and control | — | 1991–2021 | Wedgetail AEW1 | Seven were bought; the fleet had shrunk to a handful before withdrawal. | |
| Raytheon Sentinel R1 | Airborne stand-off radar and ground surveillance | 5 | 2008–2021 | — | Five aircraft. | |
| Shorts Tucano T1 | Basic flying trainer | — | 1989–2019 | Texan T1 | 130 were built by Shorts at Belfast. | |
| Panavia Tornado GR1/GR4 | Strike, interdiction and reconnaissance | — | 1979–2019 | Typhoon FGR4 and Lightning F-35B | The backbone of RAF offensive air power for four decades. The first aircraft went to the Tri-national Tornado Training Establishment at RAF Cottesmore and No.
MoreIX (Bomber) Squadron became the first front-line unit in 1982. Forty-nine GR1s went to the Gulf in 1991, where six were lost in action in low-level attacks on Iraqi airfields; the type then flew the Iraqi no-fly zones, Kosovo, Iraq again in 2003, Libya in 2011 and Operation Shader from 2014, carrying Storm Shadow, Brimstone and Paveway IV. UK aircraft were assembled by British Aerospace at Warton. Retired in 2019. |
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| AgustaWestland Merlin HC3/HC3A | Medium support helicopter | — | 2001–2016 | — | The RAF’s Merlins flew in Iraq and Afghanistan and were transferred whole to the Royal Navy’s Commando Helicopter Force in 2014 to 2016 as part of the rebalancing that followed the Harrier decision. | |
| Westland Sea King HAR3/HAR3A | Search and rescue | — | 1978–2015 | — | The yellow Sea King was the most publicly visible thing the RAF did: mountain rescue in Wales and Scotland, cliff and sea rescues around the coast, and the Falklands.
MoreMilitary search and rescue in the United Kingdom passed to a civilian contractor in 2015 and the RAF gave it up, keeping only the Mountain Rescue Service. |
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| Vickers VC10 C1K/K3/K4 | Air-to-air refuelling and strategic transport | — | 1966–2013 | Voyager KC2/KC3 | The RAF flew the VC10 for 47 years, first as a transport with No. 10 Squadron and later as a tanker.
MoreOver Libya in 2011 three VC10s flew 422 sorties and offloaded nearly ten million kilogrammes of fuel. They and the TriStars were retired together in 2013 when the AirTanker arrangement took over. |
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| Lockheed TriStar K1/KC1/C2 | Air-to-air refuelling and strategic transport | — | 1984–2013 | Voyager KC2/KC3 | Nine ex-airline aircraft converted after the Falklands campaign exposed the RAF’s shortage of long-range transport and tanking. | |
| Panavia Tornado F2/F3 | Interceptor | — | 1985–2011 | Typhoon FGR4 | The air-defence Tornado, built for long-range interception of Soviet bombers over the North Sea and never comfortable in any other role. Eighteen F3s deployed to the Gulf in 1991.
MoreIt held UK Quick Reaction Alert until the Typhoon took over and was retired in 2011. |
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| Hawker Siddeley Nimrod R1 | Signals intelligence | 3 | 1974–2011 | Airseeker RC-135W Rivet Joint | Three aircraft. | |
| Hawker Siddeley Dominie T1 | Navigator trainer | — | 1965–2011 | — | A military HS.125 used to train navigators and weapon systems officers at RAF Cranwell for 46 years. | |
| British Aerospace Harrier GR5/GR7/GR9 | Close air support and reconnaissance | — | 1989–2010 | — | The second-generation Harrier, a development of the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B assembled by British Aerospace in the United Kingdom.
MoreIt flew over Iraq, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan and, in Joint Force Harrier, from Royal Navy carriers. The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review retired it at once: the last RAF Harrier sorties were flown in December 2010 and the airframes were later sold to the United States Marine Corps for spares. Britain had no fixed-wing carrier aviation at all until the F-35B arrived. |
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| Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR1/MR2 | Maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare | — | 1969–2010 | Poseidon MRA1, after a nine-year gap | The world’s first jet maritime patrol aircraft, developed from the Comet airliner.
MoreNimrods hunted Soviet submarines in the North Atlantic, searched for the Argentine fleet in 1982 and flew overland intelligence missions over Afghanistan and Iraq. XV230 was lost near Kandahar on 2 September 2006 after an in-flight fire following air-to-air refuelling, killing all fourteen on board — the largest single loss of British life in the Afghanistan campaign. The Haddon-Cave Review of 28 October 2009 called the aircraft’s safety case "a lamentable job from start to finish" and accused the Ministry of Defence of sacrificing safety to cost. |
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| BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 | Maritime patrol, cancelled | 0 | 1996–2010 | Poseidon MRA1 | 21 aircraft were originally ordered, cut to nine by 2008; five were built and none entered service. | |
| SEPECAT Jaguar GR1/GR3 | Strike and reconnaissance | — | 1973–2007 | Typhoon FGR4 | Twelve deployed to the Gulf in 1991. | |
| English Electric Canberra | Bomber, reconnaissance and target facilities | — | 1951–2006 | — | Fifty-five years in RAF service, the longest of any British jet.
MoreIt began as the first RAF jet bomber, dropped bombs on Egyptian airfields at Suez in 1956, and ended as the PR9 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, which flew over Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan before retiring in 2006. |
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| Westland Wessex HC2 | Support helicopter | — | 1964–2003 | Puma and Griffin | A licence-built Sikorsky S-58 with British turbines. RAF Wessexes flew in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Hong Kong and Belize; the last left service with No. 84 Squadron at RAF Akrotiri in 2003.
MoreSome listings give an earlier retirement date for the type because they count only the first-generation marks. |
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| Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR1/GR3 | Close air support and reconnaissance | — | 1969–1994 | Harrier GR5/GR7 | The first operational vertical and short take-off jet in any air force. In RAF Germany it dispersed into woods and farm tracks to survive an attack on its airfields; in 1982 No.
More1 Squadron took GR3s south to the Falklands aboard Atlantic Conveyor and flew close air support from HMS Hermes. |
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| Blackburn Buccaneer S2 | Maritime strike and low-level attack | — | 1969–1994 | Tornado GR1 | Designed for the Royal Navy and inherited by the RAF when the carriers went.
MoreIt was the finest low-level strike aircraft of its generation and went to war at the very end of its life, laser-designating for Tornados over Iraq in 1991. |
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| Hawker Hunter | Fighter and ground attack | — | 1954–1994 | Lightning, Harrier and Jaguar | The Hunter was the best-looking aeroplane the RAF ever flew and, in the FGA9, one of the most useful: it did the ground-attack work in Aden and the Radfan and east of Suez into the 1970s.
MoreTwo-seat trainers flew on with the Buccaneer force at Lossiemouth until 1994. |
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| BAC Jet Provost | Basic jet trainer | — | 1955–1993 | Tucano T1 | The RAF’s basic trainer for nearly forty years and the aircraft in which most pilots of the Cold War RAF first flew a jet. | |
| Handley Page Victor B1/B2/K2 | Strategic bomber, later tanker | — | 1957–1993 | VC10 and TriStar tankers | The most advanced of the three V-bombers and the longest-lived, because when the bomber role ended it became the RAF’s tanker.
MoreVictors made Black Buck possible in 1982 and refuelled the Gulf War force in 1991 before retiring in 1993. |
|
| McDonnell Douglas Phantom FG1/FGR2 | Interceptor, strike and reconnaissance | — | 1969–1992 | Tornado F3 | British Phantoms were re-engined with Rolls-Royce Spey turbofans, which made them different aircraft from the American originals and not obviously better ones.
MoreThey served in Germany, in the United Kingdom air defence region and, after the Falklands, in a detachment at Port Stanley. The last were retired in 1992. |
|
| Avro Shackleton MR1/MR2/MR3/AEW2 | Maritime patrol and airborne early warning | — | 1951–1991 | Nimrod MR1, then E-3D Sentry | A Lincoln bomber turned into a maritime patrol aircraft, with four Griffon engines and a noise that crews never forgot.
MoreThe maritime version gave way to the Nimrod in 1970, but the AEW2 conversions soldiered on as Britain’s only airborne early warning aircraft until 1991, long past any reasonable life, because the Nimrod AEW3 that should have replaced them was cancelled in 1986. |
|
| English Electric Lightning | Interceptor | — | 1959–1988 | Phantom FGR2 and Tornado F3 | Britain’s only home-grown supersonic interceptor to reach squadron service, and a machine of extraordinary climb rate and almost no range.
MoreIt sat on Quick Reaction Alert against Soviet reconnaissance aircraft over the North Sea for nearly thirty years. The 1957 Sandys White Paper cancelled the fighters that would have followed it. |
|
| Avro Vulcan B1/B2 | Strategic bomber | — | 1956–1984 | Polaris, then Tornado GR1 | The most recognisable of the V-bombers and the only one to drop bombs in anger.
MoreIt carried Blue Danube, then Yellow Sun and the Blue Steel stand-off missile, and lost its strategic role when Polaris took over in 1969. In 1982 Vulcans flew the Black Buck missions from Ascension to Port Stanley, almost 6,600 nautical miles with up to eleven Victor tankers in the chain, and were retired two years later. |
|
| Folland Gnat T1 | Advanced trainer | — | 1962–1979 | Hawk T1 | A tiny, difficult, delightful aeroplane that trained RAF fast-jet pilots at Valley and flew with the Red Arrows from 1965 until the Hawk replaced it in 1980. | |
| Gloster Meteor | Fighter, later target towing and trials | — | 1944–1977 | Hunter and Javelin | The only Allied jet fighter to see combat in the Second World War, first used against V-1 flying bombs over southern England in 1944.
MoreIt was outclassed as a fighter by Korea but soldiered on in target-towing and trials work until 1977. |
|
| Short Belfast C1 | Outsize strategic airlift | 10 | 1966–1976 | — | Ten aircraft. | |
| Bristol Britannia C1/C2 | Strategic transport | — | 1959–1975 | VC10 and Belfast | The RAF’s long-range turboprop transport of the 1960s, flown by No. 99 and No. 511 Squadrons on the routes to the Far East and the Gulf. | |
| de Havilland Comet C2/C4 | Strategic transport | — | 1956–1975 | VC10 | No. 216 Squadron’s Comets made the RAF the first air force in the world to operate a jet transport, in 1956. The airframe went on to become the Nimrod. | |
| de Havilland Vampire | Fighter-bomber and trainer | — | 1946–1972 | Venom and Hunter | The RAF’s second jet fighter and the first single-engined one. The two-seat T11 trainer outlasted the fighters by many years and taught a generation of pilots to fly jets. | |
| Gloster Javelin | All-weather interceptor | — | 1956–1968 | Lightning | The RAF’s first delta-winged all-weather fighter, big, heavy and short-lived. It was already obsolescent when the Lightning arrived and was gone by 1968. | |
| Vickers Valiant | Strategic bomber | — | 1955–1965 | Vulcan and Victor | The first V-bomber and the aircraft with which the RAF took on the British nuclear deterrent in 1955.
MoreValiants bombed Egyptian airfields at Suez in 1956 and dropped Britain’s first hydrogen bomb in the Pacific tests. The whole fleet was grounded and scrapped in 1964 and 1965 after metal fatigue was found in the wing spars, a direct consequence of switching the aircraft to low-level flying. |
|
| BAC TSR-2 | Strike and reconnaissance, cancelled | 0 | 1964–1965 | F-111K, also cancelled; eventually Tornado GR1 | One aircraft flew; two more were complete or near-complete and the rest were broken up on the jigs. | |
| de Havilland Mosquito | Light bomber, night fighter, pathfinder and reconnaissance | — | 1941–1963 | Meteor, Vampire and Canberra | Built of wood, unarmed in its bomber version and fast enough not to need armament.
MoreThe Mosquito did precision raids, night fighting, pathfinding, photographic reconnaissance and maritime strike, and had one of the lowest loss rates in Bomber Command. |
|
| de Havilland Venom | Fighter-bomber and night fighter | — | 1952–1962 | Hunter and Javelin | A developed Vampire with a thinner wing and more power, used heavily in the Middle East and Far East, including against Egyptian airfields at Suez in 1956 and in Malaya and Aden. | |
| Bristol Beaufighter | Night fighter and anti-shipping strike | — | 1940–1960 | Mosquito and Brigand | The first effective RAF night fighter, because it was big enough to carry early airborne radar and heavily enough armed to destroy a bomber in one pass.
MoreIt later became the anti-shipping strike aircraft of Coastal Command’s strike wings. |
|
| Supermarine Spitfire | Fighter and photographic reconnaissance | — | 1938–1957 | Meteor and Vampire | The aeroplane the country remembers, and in fairness the only British fighter in production at the start of the war that was still competitive at the end of it. Twenty-four marks were built.
MoreThe last operational RAF sortie was flown by a photographic-reconnaissance PR19 in 1954 and the last RAF flight in 1957 — after which the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight has kept Spitfires flying continuously ever since, so in a strict sense the RAF has never stopped operating the type. |
|
| Canadair Sabre F4 | Day fighter | — | 1953–1956 | Hunter | About 430 Canadair-built Sabres were supplied to the RAF under the Mutual Defense Assistance Programme; the number is given differently in different accounts and should be treated as approximate. | |
| Avro Lancaster | Heavy bomber | — | 1942–1956 | Lincoln, then Canberra | The aircraft that carried most of Bomber Command’s war. It flew the Dams raid in May 1943, the Ruhr, Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden, and carried the Tallboy and Grand Slam.
MoreMaritime reconnaissance versions served with Coastal Command into the mid-1950s. |
|
| Vickers Wellington | Medium bomber and maritime patrol | — | 1938–1953 | Lancaster and Halifax | The RAF’s standard bomber at the start of the war, built on Barnes Wallis’s geodetic structure, which made it famously able to come home with large parts missing.
MoreIt stayed in front-line use in the Mediterranean and with Coastal Command long after the heavies took over in Europe. |
|
| Hawker Tempest | Fighter and ground attack | — | 1944–1953 | Vampire and Venom | A redesigned Typhoon with a thin laminar-flow wing and one of the fastest piston fighters at low level of the whole war.
MoreTempest squadrons shot down a large share of the V-1 flying bombs that reached southern England in 1944. |
|
| Handley Page Halifax | Heavy bomber and special duties | — | 1940–1952 | Lancaster and Lincoln | The other four-engined heavy of Bomber Command, less celebrated than the Lancaster and used far more widely: bombing, maritime patrol, glider towing, and dropping agents and supplies to resistance movements across occupied Europe. | |
| Fairey Battle | Light bomber | — | 1937–1949 | Blenheim and Boston | Obsolete before it fired a shot and sent anyway.
MoreIn the Battle of France in May 1940 Battle squadrons were destroyed attacking the Meuse bridges; the RAF’s first two Victoria Crosses of the war were won on one such raid. Survivors became trainers and target tugs. |
|
| Hawker Hurricane | Fighter and ground attack | — | 1937–1947 | Typhoon and Tempest | The Hurricane, not the Spitfire, did most of the work in 1940: it equipped more squadrons, was easier to repair and shot down more German aircraft in the Battle of Britain than everything else put together.
MoreIt went on to fight in North Africa, Malta, Russia and Burma as a fighter-bomber. |
|
| North American Mustang III/IV | Long-range fighter and reconnaissance | — | 1942–1947 | Meteor and Vampire | The RAF asked for the Mustang, took the first Allison-engined versions for tactical reconnaissance, and suggested fitting it with a Merlin — the change that turned it into the best long-range escort fighter of the war.
MoreRAF Mustang IIIs and IVs escorted bombers and chased V-1s. |
|
| Short Stirling | Heavy bomber, glider tug and transport | — | 1940–1946 | Lancaster and Halifax | The first British four-engined heavy bomber, hobbled by an Air Ministry requirement that its wingspan fit a standard hangar, which limited its altitude and made it the most vulnerable of the three heavies.
MoreIt was withdrawn from bombing in 1944 and finished the war towing gliders at Arnhem and on D-Day. |
|
| North American Mitchell | Medium bomber | — | 1942–1946 | Mosquito and Canberra | Supplied under Lend-Lease and flown by No. 2 Group on daylight tactical bombing over France and the Low Countries, alongside Dutch and other Allied crews in RAF service. | |
| Hawker Typhoon | Ground attack | — | 1941–1945 | Tempest | A failure as an interceptor that became the best ground-attack aircraft of the North-West Europe campaign.
MoreTyphoons with rockets and bombs broke up German armour in the Falaise pocket and at Mortain, at a cost in pilots that was extremely high. |
|
| Boulton Paul Defiant | Turret fighter, later night fighter and target tug | — | 1939–1945 | Beaufighter and Mosquito | A fighter with no forward-firing guns, only a four-gun power turret. It had one good day over Dunkirk, when German pilots mistook it for a Hurricane, and was then slaughtered.
MoreWithdrawn from day fighting in 1940, it did useful work as a night fighter and target tug. |
|
| Armstrong Whitworth Whitley | Heavy bomber, maritime patrol and glider tug | — | 1937–1945 | Halifax and Lancaster | One of the three front-line bombers of 1939, nose-down in level flight and very slow.
MoreWhitleys dropped the first RAF leaflets over Germany and the first bombs on Italy, then moved to Coastal Command and the airborne forces. |
|
| Gloster Gladiator | Fighter | — | 1937–1945 | Hurricane and Spitfire | The RAF’s last biplane fighter, obsolete in 1939 and still fighting in Norway, over Malta and in East Africa in 1940 and 1941 because there was nothing else to send. | |
| Curtiss Tomahawk and Kittyhawk | Fighter and fighter-bomber | — | 1941–1945 | Spitfire and Mustang | The RAF and the Commonwealth air forces in the Western Desert flew the P-40 in large numbers as a fighter-bomber.
MoreIt was outclassed above 15,000 feet and perfectly adequate below it, which is where the desert war was fought. |
|
| Boeing Fortress | Heavy bomber, maritime patrol and electronic warfare | — | 1941–1945 | — | The RAF tried the B-17 as a high-altitude day bomber in 1941, found the early version unsuitable and passed the type to Coastal Command for long-range maritime patrol and to No.
More100 Group for radio countermeasures. |
|
| Consolidated Catalina | Maritime patrol flying boat | — | 1941–1945 | Sunderland and Shackleton | The long-endurance flying boat of the Atlantic convoy battle. It was an RAF Catalina that re-found the Bismarck in May 1941 after the Royal Navy lost contact. | |
| Bristol Blenheim | Light bomber and fighter | — | 1937–1944 | Boston, Mitchell and Mosquito | In 1936 the Blenheim was faster than the fighters meant to intercept it; by 1940 it was a death trap, and the daylight raids it flew against shipping and airfields in 1940 and 1941 were among the costliest operations of the war for the crews involved. | |
| Handley Page Hampden | Medium bomber and torpedo bomber | — | 1938–1943 | Lancaster and Halifax | The third of the 1939 bombers, cramped to the point that crew members could not change places in flight.
MoreWithdrawn from Bomber Command in 1942 and used as a torpedo bomber by Coastal Command. |
|
| Gloster Gauntlet | Fighter | — | 1935–1940 | Gladiator and Hurricane | The last open-cockpit fighter in RAF service and the first to make a radar-directed interception, in an experiment over the North Sea in 1937 that pointed directly at the Dowding System. | |
| Hawker Hart | Light bomber | — | 1930–1939 | Battle and Blenheim | A biplane light bomber faster than the fighters of its day, and the parent of a whole family — Demon, Audax, Hind, Hardy — that equipped much of the RAF in the 1930s, at home and on imperial policing duty. | |
| Hawker Fury | Interceptor | — | 1931–1939 | Hurricane and Spitfire | The RAF’s first fighter able to exceed 200 miles an hour in level flight, and the elegant high point of the biplane fighter. It is not the Sea Fury, a different and much later aircraft. | |
| Handley Page Heyford | Heavy bomber | — | 1933–1939 | Whitley and Wellington | The last biplane heavy bomber in RAF service, with the fuselage slung under the upper wing.
MoreA Heyford was the aircraft used in the Daventry experiment of February 1935, the first practical demonstration that an aeroplane could be detected by radio waves. |
|
| Bristol Bulldog | Fighter | — | 1929–1937 | Gauntlet and Gladiator | For most of the early 1930s the Bulldog equipped about a third of RAF Fighter Command’s predecessor, the Air Defence of Great Britain. Douglas Bader lost his legs in one in 1931. | |
| Avro 504 | Trainer, and early bomber and night fighter | — | 1913–1933 | Tutor and Hart trainers | The aircraft on which the Royal Flying Corps, the Royal Naval Air Service and then the RAF learned to fly, for twenty years.
MoreAvro 504s also flew the first British strategic bombing raid of the First World War, against the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen in November 1914. |
|
| Vickers Vimy | Heavy bomber | — | 1919–1933 | Virginia and Heyford | Built to bomb Berlin and finished too late to do it.
MoreIn RAF service it equipped the heavy bomber squadrons of the 1920s and served in Egypt and the Middle East; a civil-registered Vimy made the first non-stop transatlantic flight in June 1919. |
|
| Armstrong Whitworth Siskin | Fighter | — | 1924–1932 | Bulldog | One of the first RAF fighters of all-metal construction, and a mainstay of the very small home defence force of the 1920s, when the whole RAF was fighting for its existence. | |
| Bristol F.2 Fighter | Two-seat fighter and army cooperation | — | 1917–1932 | Audax and Atlas | The Brisfit had a disastrous debut in April 1917 and then, once crews learned to fly it as a single-seater with a sting in the tail, became one of the best aircraft of the war.
MoreIt stayed in RAF service for fifteen years, much of it on imperial policing in Iraq and on the North-West Frontier. |
|
| Airco DH.9 and DH.9A | Day bomber | — | 1918–1931 | Wapiti | The DH.9 was a worse aeroplane than the DH.4 it replaced, because of an inadequate engine; the re-engined DH.9A was much better and became the standard RAF bomber of the 1920s, flying air control operations in Iraq, Aden and on the North-West Frontier. | |
| Sopwith Snipe | Fighter | — | 1918–1926 | Grebe, Siskin and Woodcock | The RAF’s standard fighter at the end of the First World War and for most of the years immediately after it, when the service was cut from nearly 200 squadrons to a couple of dozen. | |
| Sopwith Camel | Fighter | — | 1917–1920 | Snipe | Credited with more air-to-air victories than any other Allied aircraft of the First World War. | |
| Airco DH.4 | Day bomber and reconnaissance | — | 1917–1920 | DH.9A | The best British day bomber of the First World War, fast enough to outrun many fighters, and the aircraft on which the Independent Force began its raids into Germany in 1918. | |
| Handley Page O/400 | Heavy night bomber | — | 1918–1920 | Vickers Vimy | The RAF’s heavy night bomber of 1918 and the aircraft of the Independent Force, which took the war to German industrial cities — the practical beginning of the strategic bombing idea that shaped the service for the next thirty years. | |
| Sopwith Dolphin | Fighter | — | 1918–1919 | Snipe | A back-staggered Sopwith with the pilot’s head through the upper wing, good at altitude and used against high-flying German reconnaissance aircraft in the last year of the war. | |
| Sopwith Pup | Fighter | — | 1916–1918 | Camel | A Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Flying Corps fighter, gentle and beautifully balanced, and the aircraft in which Edwin Dunning made the first landing on a moving ship in August 1917. | |
| Sopwith Triplane | Fighter | — | 1917–1918 | Camel | A Royal Naval Air Service fighter whose rate of climb so alarmed the Germans that it prompted a wave of triplane designs, the Fokker Dr.I among them.
MoreFew reached RAF service after the merger. |
|
| Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter | Two-seat fighter and bomber | — | 1916–1918 | Camel and DH.4 | The first British aircraft to enter service with a synchronised machine gun firing through the propeller, flown by both the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. | |
| SPAD S.VII | Fighter | — | 1916–1918 | Camel and Dolphin | A strong, fast French fighter bought for several Royal Flying Corps squadrons in France and for Middle East service, valued for its ability to dive without breaking up. | |
| SPAD XIII | Fighter | — | 1917–1918 | Camel and Snipe | The more powerful development of the S.VII, used in small numbers by the Royal Flying Corps before British types caught up. | |
| Nieuport 11 | Fighter | — | 1916–1917 | Nieuport 17 and Camel | French-built and flown by the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in 1916, when British-designed fighters were losing badly to the Fokker monoplanes.
MoreIts service ended before the RAF was formed; it is listed here because the RAF’s lineage runs through the RFC and RNAS. |
Where the Royal Air Force flies from, at home and abroad
Black pins are active stations, hollow pins the ones that have closed. Quick Reaction Alert is held round the clock from Lossiemouth in the north and Coningsby in the south. A dozen entries below are radar heads, headquarters or closed stations with no aerodrome, so they carry no pin.
The United Kingdom
4 of the 46 bases above sit outside the United Kingdom, so the world map has to pull back until the home airfields cannot be told apart. The same pins again, without the overseas bases.
| Base | ICAO | Status | Runway | Units and aircraft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascension Island BaseAscension Island | Active | — |
|
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| Joint Helicopter Command Flying Station AldergroveCounty Antrim, Northern Ireland | EGAA | Active | 07/252,780 mgrooved asphalt17/351,891 masphalt with porous friction coat |
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| Leuchars StationFife, Scotland | EGQL | Active | 08/262,586 mblacktop and concrete |
|
| Ministry of Defence Boscombe DownWiltshire, England | EGDM | Active | 05/233,205 masphalt with concrete05N/23N766 m |
|
| Mount Pleasant ComplexEast Falkland, Falkland Islands | EGYP | Active | 10/282,589 masphalt and concrete05/231,525 masphalt and concrete |
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| Royal Air Force AkrotiriWestern Sovereign Base Area, Cyprus | LCRA | Active | 10/282,745 mblacktop with concrete |
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| Royal Air Force Barkston HeathLincolnshire, England | EGYE | Active | 06/241,868 mblacktop with concrete ends10/281,318 mblacktop with concrete ends |
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| Royal Air Force BensonOxfordshire, England | EGUB | Active | 01/191,825 mblacktop |
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| Royal Air Force BoulmerNorthumberland, England | Active | — |
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| Royal Air Force Brize NortonOxfordshire, England | EGVN | Active | 07/253,050 m |
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| Royal Air Force College CranwellLincolnshire, England | EGYD | Active | 08/262,081 masphalt with concrete ends01/191,462 masphalt with concrete ends06/241,197 mgrass03/211,103 mgrass |
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| Royal Air Force ConingsbyLincolnshire, England | EGXC | Active | 07/252,744 masphalt with concrete |
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| Royal Air Force CosfordShropshire, England | EGWC | Active | 06/241,118 m |
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| Royal Air Force DigbyLincolnshire, England | Active | — | ||
| Royal Air Force FylingdalesNorth Yorkshire, England | Active | — |
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| Royal Air Force GibraltarGibraltar | LXGB | Active | 09/271,798 mblacktop |
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| Royal Air Force HaltonBuckinghamshire, England | EGWN | Active | 02/201,161 mgrass07/25868 mgrass |
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| Royal Air Force HenlowBedfordshire, England | Active | — |
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| Royal Air Force High WycombeBuckinghamshire, England | Active | — |
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| Royal Air Force HoningtonSuffolk, England | EGXH | Active | 08/262,745 masphalt and concrete |
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| Royal Air Force KenleyGreater London, England | EGKN | Active | 02/20823 m07/25758 mgrass |
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| Royal Air Force KirknewtonMidlothian, Scotland | EGKT | Active | 05L/23R617 m11/29698 mgrass |
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| Royal Air Force LeemingNorth Yorkshire, England | EGXE | Active | 16/342,292 mporous friction course over blacktop03/21793 m |
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| Royal Air Force Little RissingtonGloucestershire, England | EGVL | Active | 04/221,490 m09/271,074 m13/31975 m |
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| Royal Air Force LossiemouthMoray, Scotland | EGQS | Active | 05/232,764 mconcrete and grooved marshall asphalt10/281,850 mconcrete and blacktop |
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| Royal Air Force MarhamNorfolk, England | EGYM | Active | 05/232,783 masphalt with concrete thresholds01/191,864 mconcrete and asphalt |
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| Royal Air Force MonaAnglesey, Wales | EGOQ | Active | 04/221,647 m |
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| Royal Air Force NortholtGreater London, England | EGWU | Active | 07/251,683 mgrooved marshall asphalt |
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| Royal Air Force OdihamHampshire, England | EGVO | Active | 09/271,838 mprc asphalt |
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| Royal Air Force ShawburyShropshire, England | EGOS | Active | 18/361,831 mblacktop and concrete04/221,375 mblacktop and concrete |
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| Royal Air Force SpadeadamCumbria, England | Active | — |
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| Royal Air Force St MawganCornwall, England | Active | 12/302,744 mconcrete and grooved asphalt |
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| Royal Air Force SwanwickHampshire, England | Active | — |
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| Royal Air Force SyerstonNottinghamshire, England | EGXY | Active | 06/241,810 m15/331,352 m11/29559 m |
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| Royal Air Force TopcliffeNorth Yorkshire, England | EGXZ | Active | 02/201,826 m13/311,256 mstone mastic asphalt07/251,042 mmarshall asphalt |
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| Royal Air Force ValleyAnglesey, Wales | EGOV | Active | 13/312,290 masphalt and concrete01/191,572 masphalt and concrete | |
| Royal Air Force WaddingtonLincolnshire, England | EGXW | Active | 02/202,939 mblacktop with concrete ends |
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| Royal Air Force WitteringCambridgeshire, England | EGXT | Active | 07/252,755 mgrooved marshall asphalt with brushed concrete thresholds |
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| Royal Air Force WoodvaleMerseyside, England | EGOW | Active | 03/211,648 m08/261,059 m |
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| Royal Air Force WytonCambridgeshire, England | Active | — |
No air base matches that search.
Who is stationed where in the Royal Air Force
Flying units by station, current units first. Squadron numbers are written as the Royal Air Force writes them, which means Roman numerals for some squadrons and Arabic for the rest. Units belonging to the Royal Navy or the Army, or shared with them, say so.
- No. 1 (Fighter) SquadronFighter squadron · active
- Typhoon FGR4
- No. II (Army Cooperation) SquadronFighter squadron · active
- Typhoon FGR4
- No. 6 SquadronFighter squadron · active
- Typhoon FGR4
- No. IX (Bomber) SquadronFighter squadron · active
- Typhoon FGR4
- No. VIII SquadronAirborne early warning squadron · active
- Wedgetail AEW Mk1
- No. 120 SquadronMaritime patrol squadron · active
- Poseidon MRA1
- No. 201 SquadronMaritime patrol squadron · active
- Poseidon MRA1
- No. 42 (Torpedo Bomber) SquadronISTAR operational conversion unit · active
- Poseidon MRA1, Wedgetail AEW Mk1
- No. 51 Squadron RAF RegimentRAF Regiment field squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 2622 Squadron RAuxAF RegimentReserve RAF Regiment squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 4 RAF Police and Security Squadron (Typhoon)RAF Police squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- RAF Mountain Rescue ServiceMountain rescue team · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 3 (Fighter) SquadronFighter squadron · active
- Typhoon FGR4
- No. XI (Fighter) SquadronFighter squadron · active
- Typhoon FGR4
- No. 12 SquadronFighter squadron · active
- Typhoon FGR4
- No. 29 SquadronTyphoon operational conversion unit · active
- Typhoon FGR4, Typhoon T3
- No. XLI Test and Evaluation SquadronTest and evaluation squadron · active
- Typhoon FGR4
- Battle of Britain Memorial FlightHistoric flight · active
- Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster, Dakota, Chipmunk
- Typhoon Display TeamDisplay team · active
- Typhoon FGR4
- Air Land Integration CellSupport unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 617 SquadronFighter squadron · active
- Lightning F-35B
- No. 207 SquadronLightning operational conversion unit · active
- Lightning F-35B
- 809 Naval Air SquadronFleet Air Arm fighter squadron · active
- Lightning F-35B
- Lightning Force HeadquartersForce headquarters · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 15 Squadron RAF RegimentRAF Regiment field squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 2620 Squadron RAuxAF RegimentReserve RAF Regiment squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 6 RAF Police and Security Squadron (F35)RAF Police squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 10 SquadronAir-to-air refuelling and transport squadron · active
- Voyager KC2/KC3
- No. 101 SquadronAir-to-air refuelling and transport squadron · active
- Voyager KC2/KC3
- No. 99 SquadronStrategic transport squadron · active
- Globemaster C-17A
- No. XXIV SquadronAir mobility training squadron · active
- Globemaster C-17A, Atlas C1
- No. 30 SquadronTactical transport squadron · active
- Atlas C1
- No. LXX SquadronTactical transport squadron · active
- Atlas C1
- No. 206 Test and Evaluation SquadronTest and evaluation squadron · active
- Atlas C1
- No. II Squadron RAF RegimentRAF Regiment field squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 501 Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 622 Squadron RAuxAFReserve air transport squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 4624 Squadron RAuxAFReserve movements squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 4626 Squadron RAuxAFReserve aeromedical squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 2624 Squadron RAuxAF RegimentReserve RAF Regiment squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- UK Mobile Air Movements SquadronMovements squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 47 Squadron—
- Hercules C4/C5
- No. XIII SquadronRemotely piloted air system squadron · active
- Protector RG Mk 1
- No. 31 SquadronRemotely piloted air system squadron · active
- Protector RG Mk 1
- No. 14 SquadronISTAR squadron · active
- Shadow R1
- No. 51 SquadronSignals intelligence squadron · active
- RC-135W Rivet Joint
- No. 54 SquadronISTAR operational conversion unit · active
- RC-135W Rivet Joint, Shadow R1
- No. 56 Test and Evaluation SquadronTest and evaluation squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 92 SquadronTactics and training squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Royal Air Force Aerobatic TeamRed Arrows · Display team · active
- Hawk T1
- No. 616 Squadron RAuxAFReserve ISTAR squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 2 ISR SquadronIntelligence squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 3 ISR SquadronIntelligence squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 2503 Squadron RAuxAF RegimentReserve RAF Regiment squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 5 RAF Police and Security Squadron (ISTAR)RAF Police squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 7 SquadronSupport helicopter squadron · joint
- Chinook HC6A
- No. 18 SquadronSupport helicopter squadron · joint
- Chinook HC6A
- No. 27 SquadronSupport helicopter squadron · joint
- Chinook HC6A
- Chinook Role Demonstration TeamDisplay team · joint
- Chinook HC6A
- No. 28 (Army Cooperation) SquadronSupport helicopter operational conversion unit · joint
- Chinook HC6A
- No. XXII SquadronOperational evaluation unit · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- Jupiter HC2 interim medium helicopterFlying unit · joint
- Jupiter HC2
- Joint Helicopter Support SquadronSupport squadron · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 606 Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- Oxford University Air SquadronUniversity air squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- No. 6 Air Experience FlightAir experience flight · reserve
- Type not stated
- No. 33 Squadron—
- Puma HC2
- No. 230 Squadron—
- Puma HC2
- No. IV SquadronAdvanced fast-jet training squadron · active
- Hawk T2
- No. XXV (Fighter) SquadronAdvanced fast-jet training squadron · active
- Hawk T2
- No. 72 SquadronBasic fast-jet training squadron · active
- Texan T1
- No. 202 SquadronHelicopter training squadron · active
- Juno HT1, Jupiter HT1
- RAF Mountain Rescue ServiceMountain rescue team · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 60 SquadronHelicopter training squadron · active
- Juno HT1, Jupiter HT1
- 660 Squadron Army Air CorpsArmy helicopter training squadron · joint
- Juno HT1, Jupiter HT1
- 670 Squadron Army Air CorpsArmy helicopter training squadron · joint
- Juno HT1, Jupiter HT1
- 705 Naval Air SquadronRoyal Navy helicopter training squadron · joint
- Juno HT1, Jupiter HT1
- Central Flying School (Helicopter)Instructor training unit · active
- Juno HT1, Jupiter HT1
- Defence College of Air and Space OperationsTraining college · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- Aircraft Maintenance and Storage UnitMaintenance and storage unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 45 SquadronMulti-engine pilot training squadron · active
- Phenom T1
- No. LVII SquadronElementary flying training squadron · active
- Prefect T1
- No. 3 Flying Training SchoolFlying training school · active
- Prefect T1, Phenom T1
- No. VI Flying Training SchoolFlying training school · active
- Tutor T1
- Central Flying SchoolInstructor training unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- East Midlands Universities Air SquadronUniversity air squadron · reserve
- Tutor T1
- RAF Officer Training AcademyOfficer training unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 8 RAF Police and Security SquadronRAF Police squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 16 SquadronElementary flying training squadron · active
- Tutor T1
- No. 115 SquadronInstructor training squadron · active
- Tutor T1
- No. 504 Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- Tutor T1
- No. 71 (Inspection and Repair) SquadronAircraft repair squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 93 (Expeditionary Armaments) SquadronArmaments squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 5001 SquadronExpeditionary airfield engineering squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Joint Aircraft Recovery and Transportation SquadronAircraft recovery squadron · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 1 Expeditionary Logistics SquadronLogistics squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Cambridge University Air SquadronUniversity air squadron · reserve
- Tutor T1
- University of London Air SquadronUniversity air squadron · reserve
- Tutor T1
- No. 5 Air Experience FlightAir experience flight · reserve
- Tutor T1
- Harrier Force at Wittering1969–2010
- Harrier GR3, GR5, GR7 and GR9
- No. XXXII SquadronCommand support air transport squadron · active
- Envoy IV CC1
- No. 600 (City of London) Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 601 (County of London) Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 63 Squadron RAF RegimentQueen’s Colour Squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 1 Aeronautical Information Documents UnitAeronautical information unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 100 SquadronAggressor and joint terminal attack control squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 34 Squadron RAF RegimentRAF Regiment field squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 607 (County of Durham) Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 609 (West Riding) Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- Joint Forward Air Control Training and Standardisation UnitTraining unit · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- Yorkshire Universities Air SquadronUniversity air squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- Northumbrian Universities Air SquadronUniversity air squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- Tactical Communications WingCommunications wing · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 84 SquadronSearch and rescue and firefighting squadron · active
- Jupiter HC2
- Cyprus Operations Support UnitSupport unit · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- Griffin and Puma at Akrotiri2023–2025
- Griffin HAR2, Puma HC2
- No. 1435 FlightFighter flight · active
- Typhoon FGR4
- No. 1312 FlightAir-to-air refuelling and transport flight · active
- Voyager KC3, Atlas C1
- No. 1310 FlightSupport helicopter flight · joint
- Chinook HC6A
- Royal Air Force GibraltarStation flight and airfield operations · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- Manchester and Salford Universities Air SquadronUniversity air squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- Liverpool University Air SquadronUniversity air squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- No. 10 Air Experience FlightAir experience flight · reserve
- Type not stated
- Final operational RAF Spitfire flight—
- Spitfire PR XIX
- No. 2 Flying Training SchoolFlying training school · active
- Viking T1 glider, Robin DR400
- Central Gliding SchoolInstructor training unit · active
- Viking T1 glider
- No. 644 Volunteer Gliding SquadronVolunteer gliding squadron · reserve
- Viking T1 glider
- No. 605 (County of Warwick) Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- University of Birmingham Air SquadronUniversity air squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- No. 1 School of Technical TrainingTraining school · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 2 School of Technical TrainingTraining school · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 1 Radio SchoolTraining school · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Defence School of PhotographyTraining school · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 1 Squadron RAF RegimentRAF Regiment field squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 2623 Squadron RAuxAF RegimentReserve RAF Regiment squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 3 RAF Police (Reserve) SquadronReserve RAF Police squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 2 RAF Police Counter Intelligence SquadronRAF Police squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 611 Volunteer Gliding SquadronVolunteer gliding squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- No. 7644 Squadron RAuxAFReserve media squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- Aviator Training AcademyTraining unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Central Training SchoolTraining unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- School of Technical Training and the Aircraft Apprentice Scheme1917–
- No assigned aircraft
- Empire Test Pilots’ SchoolTest pilot school · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 502 (Ulster) Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- Leuchars AerodromeAerodrome unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron RAuxAFReserve aeromedical squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- East of Scotland Universities Air SquadronUniversity air squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- RAF air defence at Leuchars1920–2014
- Type not stated
- Relief landing ground for CranwellRelief landing ground · active
- Type not stated
- Relief landing ground for ValleyRelief landing ground · active
- Type not stated
- Volunteer gliding at TopcliffeVolunteer gliding squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- No. 637 Volunteer Gliding SquadronVolunteer gliding squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- No. 615 Volunteer Gliding SquadronVolunteer gliding squadron · reserve
- Viking T1 glider
- No. 661 Volunteer Gliding SquadronVolunteer gliding squadron · reserve
- Type not stated
- No. 505 Squadron RAuxAFReserve squadron · reserve
- No assigned aircraft
- Defence Survive, Evade, Resist and Extract Training OrganisationTraining organisation · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- Maritime reconnaissance at St Mawgan1951–2008
- Lancaster, Sea King HAR3
- No. XIX SquadronAir battle management squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 20 SquadronAir battle management training squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 144 Signals UnitSignals unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 9 RAF Police and Security Squadron (Air C2 and Space)RAF Police squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Control and Reporting CentreOperations centre · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 2 Space Warning SquadronSpace warning squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Joint Service Signals Unit DigbySignals intelligence unit · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 591 Signals UnitSignals unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 399 Signals UnitSignals unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Aerial Erectors SchoolTraining school · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Fighter station and RCAF Station Digby1918–1955
- Spitfire, Mosquito
- Headquarters Air CommandService headquarters · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 1 GroupGroup headquarters · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 2 GroupGroup headquarters · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 11 GroupGroup headquarters · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 22 GroupGroup headquarters · active
- No assigned aircraft
- No. 1 Space Operations SquadronSpace operations squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- European Air GroupMultinational headquarters · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- RAF Centre of Aviation MedicineAviation medicine unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Joint Arms Control Implementation GroupArms control unit · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- Forensic Exploitation FlightForensic unit · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Electronic Warfare Tactics RangeRange · active
- No assigned aircraft
- National Centre for Geospatial IntelligenceIntelligence centre · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- 42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic)Army regiment · joint
- No assigned aircraft
- Pathfinder Force1942–
- Mosquito, Lancaster
- No. 78 SquadronAir traffic management squadron · active
- No assigned aircraft
- Ascension Island BaseStation headquarters · active
- No assigned aircraft
No unit matches that search.
Royal Air Force milestones, 1914 to today
1 April: the Royal Air Force is formed by merging the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, the first independent air force in the world. Hugh Trenchard had become the first Chief of the Air Staff on 18 January.
1 October: the RAF takes over military command in Iraq under the air control doctrine agreed at the Cairo Conference of 1921 — the first time an airman directed all military operations in a country. The same method is applied on the North-West Frontier, in Aden, Transjordan and Sudan.
Fighter, Bomber, Coastal and Training Commands are formed. Hugh Dowding takes Fighter Command and begins building the radar, reporting and control network that becomes the Dowding System.
10 July to 31 October: the Battle of Britain. The RAF counts 2,945 aircrew as having flown in it, 544 of whom were killed; 312 ground personnel died on the ground. About one in five of the aircrew were not British.
14 February: the area bombing directive. Arthur Harris takes over Bomber Command a week later. Over the war Bomber Command flies 501,536 sorties, loses 8,325 aircraft and 55,573 aircrew killed, and drops just over a million tonnes of bombs.
13–15 February: the attack on Dresden, the sharpest point of an argument about area bombing that is still running. Bomber Command aircrew receive no campaign medal until the Bomber Command Clasp is announced in December 2012.
26 June: the Berlin Airlift begins. At its peak the RAF flies around 400 missions a day in Operation Plainfare, delivering nearly 400,000 tons and evacuating more than 130,000 people — close to a quarter of all Allied supplies.
The Vickers Valiant enters service and the RAF takes on the British strategic nuclear deterrent, joined by the Vulcan from 1956 and the Victor from 1957.
Duncan Sandys’s Defence White Paper declares that guided missiles will replace manned fighters and cancels a generation of British aircraft. The industry never fully recovers.
6 April: TSR-2 is cancelled in the Budget, seven months after its first flight, and the tooling is destroyed. Two airframes survive, at Duxford and Cosford.
The Royal Navy’s Polaris submarines take over the strategic deterrent, ending the RAF’s primary nuclear role after thirteen years. The service keeps the tactical WE.177 bomb.
1 May: the first Black Buck mission. A Vulcan flies almost 6,600 nautical miles from Ascension to Port Stanley and back, supported by up to eleven Victor tankers, and puts a bomb through the runway. Five of seven planned missions are completed.
The Gulf War. The RAF deploys 157 aircraft including 49 Tornado GR1s, 18 Tornado F3s and 12 Jaguars, flies 6,108 sorties in Desert Storm and loses six Tornado GR1s in action.
22 April: the last WE.177 nuclear weapons are withdrawn. For the first time since 1955 the United Kingdom has no air-delivered nuclear weapon, and will not have one again until the F-35A arrives.
19 October: the Strategic Defence and Security Review retires the Harrier and the Nimrod MR2 and cancels the Nimrod MRA4, whose completed airframes are cut up. The National Audit Office later puts the waste at 3.4 billion pounds. Nine years follow with no maritime patrol aircraft.
The Tornado is retired after 39 years, having flown in every major British air campaign since 1991. The Shorts Tucano goes the same year.
The E-3D Sentry and the Sentinel R1 leave service before their replacements arrive, and the Wedgetail order is cut from five aircraft to three in the Integrated Review. The Defence Committee later calls the cut "the most perverse" decision in the command paper.
28 June: the last RAF Hercules flight, after 56 years. The Atlas C1 takes over as the main air mobility platform and the Defence Committee warns that special forces support has been squeezed.
2 June: the Strategic Defence Review. On 25 June the government announces twelve F-35As and a return to NATO’s nuclear sharing mission, the first British air-delivered nuclear role since 1998. The Puma retires in March after 54 years, Protector enters service on 16 June and the Reaper flies its last mission on 3 October.
The first Wedgetail AEW1 arrives at RAF Lossiemouth at the end of May. On 1 September Air Command is redesignated Air and Space Command, and on 23 September the RAF announces No. III Space Effects Squadron — the RAF’s first dedicated offensive and defensive space unit.
Every war the Royal Air Force has fought
Sorties and losses where the record gives them, and an honest blank where it does not.
- The First World War 1918 Inherited the air war on 1 April 1918 from the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, and fought the last seven months of it in every theatre, including the first sustained strategic bombing campaign against German industrial cities
- Air control and imperial policing 1919–1939 Policed British mandated and colonial territory from the air, taking over from ground garrisons
- The Battle of France 1939–1940 Fought the air campaign over France and the Low Countries with an expeditionary force of bombers and fighters, and covered the evacuation from Dunkirk
- The Battle of Britain 1940 Defended the United Kingdom against the Luftwaffe’s attempt to win air superiority as a precondition for invasion, using the world’s first integrated air defence system
- The strategic bombing offensive 1939–1945 Flew the British strategic bombing campaign against German industry, transport and cities, and from 1944 against the invasion’s transport targets and the V-weapon sites
Royal Air Force news from Afterburner
Everything MiGFlug’s magazine has published on the Royal Air Force and the aircraft it flies. This list refreshes itself — new Afterburner stories appear here automatically.
Everything people ask about the Royal Air Force
What aircraft does the Royal Air Force fly in 2026?
How many people are in the RAF?
Who is the head of the Royal Air Force?
Is the RAF the oldest air force in the world?
Why was the Royal Air Force created?
What was air control and why is it controversial?
What actually won the Battle of Britain?
How many pilots flew in the Battle of Britain and how many died?
How many Bomber Command aircrew were killed in the Second World War?
Why did Bomber Command crews not get a campaign medal?
Was the bombing of Dresden a war crime?
When did the RAF have nuclear weapons?
Is the RAF getting nuclear weapons again?
Why was TSR-2 cancelled?
What were the Black Buck raids?
How many aircraft did the RAF lose in the 1991 Gulf War?
What happened to the Nimrod MRA4?
Why did the RAF retire the Harrier in 2010?
What is the Wedgetail and why are there only three?
What replaced the RAF Hercules?
Why are the RAF’s Typhoon numbers falling?
What is GCAP and when does it arrive?
Why do some RAF squadrons use Roman numerals?
Is the F-35 force RAF or Royal Navy?
What is wrong with RAF pilot training?
What was the RAF recruitment scandal?
What do the Red Arrows fly and what happens next?
How big is the RAF compared with the Cold War?
What does Air and Space Command mean?
Where is the RAF based overseas?
Read the aircraft the Royal Air Force flew
Every type with a page in the Book of Beasts, in service first, then by the year it left the fleet.
Every fact, checked
- Ministry of Defence: UK armed forces equipment and formations 2026accredited official statistics published 20 August 2026; aircraft holdings and in-service figures at 1 April 2026 and formation counts. The primary source for almost every fleet number on this page
- UK armed forces equipment and formations 2026 — data tablesworksheets 7, 8 and 9: fixed-wing and uncrewed aircraft, rotary-wing aircraft, and RAF and Royal Auxiliary Air Force formations
- Background Quality Report: UK armed forces equipment and formations 2026definitions of "in service", the effective forward fleet and availability contracts, which is why several fleets have no in-service figure
- Ministry of Defence: Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics, 1 July 2026RAF regular strength, trained strength and reserves at 1 July 2026
- Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics 1 July 2026 — accessible Excel tablestables 2c and 3a: RAF strength and commitment, and Full Time Trained Strength against workforce requirement
- Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics indexused to confirm that 1 July 2026 is the latest edition
- Royal Air Force: Chief of the Air Staffthe current Chief of the Air Staff and his career
- Royal Air Force: Air Marshal Harv Smyth appointed new Chief of the Air Staffannouncement of 16 July 2025 and the succession from Sir Rich Knighton
- GOV.UK: Secretary of State for Defencethe current Secretary of State and the date of appointment
- Royal Air Force: Aircraftthe service’s own list of current, training and retired aircraft types
- Royal Air Force: Squadronsthe authoritative list of squadron titles, which is how the Roman and Arabic numbering on this page was set, and of stations
- Royal Air Force: Newsused to date the 2026 changes
- Royal Air Force: Per Ardua ad Astra — Air Command redesignated to Air and Space Commandthe redesignation of 1 September 2026 and the RAF’s space lineage back to Fylingdales in 1963
- Royal Air Force: RAF launches first ever Space SquadronNo. III Space Effects Squadron, 23 September 2026, and the 880 million pound space investment
- Royal Air Force: RAF F-35A marks a significant step in delivering a more lethal Integrated Force and joining NATO Nuclear Mission25 June 2025: twelve F-35A, No. 207 Squadron at RAF Marham, the 27-aircraft second phase and the 138-aircraft headmark
- Royal Air Force: Lightning F-35Bthe Lightning Force, its squadrons and the initial operating capability dates
- Royal Air Force: Poseidon MRA1nine aircraft, the squadrons at RAF Lossiemouth, and the link back to the Nimrod MRA4 cancellation
- Royal Air Force: Wedgetail AEW Mk1No. VIII Squadron and No. 42 (TB) Squadron at RAF Lossiemouth, and the aircraft’s role
- Royal Air Force: Shadow R1the urgent operational requirement origin, the squadrons and the Shadow R2 upgrade
- Royal Air Force: Voyagerthe core and surge fleets, the AirTanker arrangement and the KC2 and KC3 marks
- Royal Air Force: Atlas C1 (A400M)22 aircraft, the four squadrons at RAF Brize Norton and the succession from the Hercules
- Royal Air Force: Envoy IV CC1two Falcon 900LX with No. XXXII (The Royal) Squadron from 1 June 2022, replacing four BAe 146
- Royal Air Force: Hawk T1the Red Arrows, the No. 100 Squadron withdrawal on 31 March 2022 and the expectation of service to the end of the 2029 display season
- Royal Air Force: Reaper (MQ-9A)No. 39 Squadron and No. XIII Squadron, 2007 to 2025
- Royal Air Force: RAF Reaper makes final flight3 October 2025, eighteen years and more than 173,000 flying hours
- Royal Air Force: 84 Squadronthe firefighting and support role at RAF Akrotiri
- Royal Air Force: 1.4 billion pound modernised Chinook fleetthe 2021 announcement of 14 H-47(ER) aircraft with deliveries then promised from 2026
- Royal Air Force: Chief of the Air Staff statement on the RAF Recruiting Inquiry29 June 2023: 161 candidates accelerated, 31 men who missed a joining bonus, the apology and the twelve recommendations
- Royal Air Force: The Battle of Britainthe RAF’s own figures: 2,945 aircrew, 544 killed, 312 ground personnel, and the Dowding System timings
- Battle of Britain London Monument: The Airmenthe clasp roll: 2,937 airmen and the breakdown by nationality
- Imperial War Museums: The Battle of Britainthe Observer Corps, anti-aircraft and barrage balloon figures and the phases of the battle
- Imperial War Museums: Life and death in Bomber Commandthe survival odds: 51 per cent killed on operations, 12 per cent in accidents, 13 per cent prisoners, 24 per cent unharmed
- Royal Air Force: The RAF’s vital role in the Berlin Airliftaround 400 RAF missions a day, nearly 400,000 tons delivered and more than 130,000 people evacuated
- Royal Air Force: 40th anniversary of Op Black Buckseven missions planned and five completed, almost 6,600 nautical miles, up to eleven Victor tankers, and the decorations
- RAF Centre for Air and Space Power Studies, Air Power Review: Reassessing the History of Air Controlthe RAF’s own critical assessment of air control, the Cairo Conference, the assumption of command in Iraq on 1 October 1922, and the 1928 accuracy figures
- RAF Museum: British military aviation timeline, 1918the Air Council, Trenchard’s appointment on 18 January 1918, and the No. 44 Squadron Gotha interception of 28 January
- RAF Museum: British military aviation timeline, 1956the year of Suez and of the atomic trials air task force; consulted for dating
- University of York, Nuclear Disarmament and Irreversibility project: Denuclearising the RAF (Ritchie and Walker, 2024)the V-force taking the deterrent in 1955 and 1956, the handover to Polaris in 1969, the WE.177 variants and the final withdrawal on 22 April 1998
- Royal Air Force Air Historical Branch: post-Cold War studiesthe index of published Air Historical Branch narratives, including the Operation Herrick IV study on Afghanistan
- Air Historical Branch: The RAF and the First Gulf War — Air Power Lessons157 aircraft deployed including 49 Tornado GR1s, 18 Tornado F3s and 12 Jaguars, 6,108 sorties in Desert Storm, and the opening airfield losses
- Air Historical Branch: UK Air Power in Operation Unified Protector, Libya, 2011about 3,000 RAF sorties of 26,320, 2,100 strike sorties of 9,658, 640 targets, and the type-by-type sortie and weapon figures
- Air Historical Branch: The RAF in Operation Telic, 2003 — Offensive Air Powermore than 120 fixed-wing aircraft, wing-by-wing sortie figures, and the loss of a No. IX (Bomber) Squadron Tornado to a Patriot battery on 22 March 2003
- Air Historical Branch: The RAF over Iraq and Kosovo, 1997–2000Operation Bolton, the no-fly zone sortie and tanker figures, and Desert Fox
- Royal Air Force: Operation Shaderthe RAF’s own summary of the campaign against Daesh from 2014
- Forces News: Operation Shader — UK mission to defeat IS in Iraq and Syria to come to an end28 September 2024: about 1,400 targets struck in more than 10,000 RAF sorties, and the coalition wind-down timetable
- The Royal Air Force Chronicle: Panavia Tornado GR1 in RAF Gulf War Operations, 1991six Tornado GR1s lost in the early low-level phase, and roughly 1,500 Tornado operational sorties
- GOV.UK: The Strategic Defence Review 2025 — Making Britain Safer: secure at home, strong abroadpublished 2 June 2025; the "NATO first" framing and the 2.5 per cent by 2027 and 3 per cent commitments
- House of Commons Library: UK defence spending (CBP-8175)updated 2 September 2026: 62.0 billion pounds in 2025–26 rising to 79.1 billion by 2029–30, and the NATO percentage-of-GDP figures
- House of Commons Library: Defence Investment Plan — key decisions (CBP-10935)the plan of 30 June 2026: more than 8 billion pounds for GCAP, over 1.1 billion for Typhoon, 300 million for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, more than 5 billion for drones and autonomy
- House of Commons Library: What is the Global Combat Air Programme? (CBP-10143)updated 8 July 2026: the December 2023 treaty, UK ratification in October 2024, 2 billion pounds committed since 2021, in service 2035 and a demonstrator flight in 2027
- House of Commons Library: Typhoon fighter sovereign capability (CDP-2025-0210)129 Typhoons with 107 in service at 1 April 2025, the Tranche 1 drawdown from spring 2025, the 2040 out-of-service date, and the minister’s statement of 29 October 2025 on the Turkish order filling the Warton gap
- House of Commons Library debate pack: RAF E-7 Wedgetail programme (CDP-2025-0161)five ordered in 2019, cut to three in March 2021, the Defence Committee’s "absolute folly" and 40-per-cent-for-12-per-cent criticism, and the E-3D Sentry gap from 2021
- House of Commons Defence Committee: Aviation Procurement — Winging it?10 September 2023: the Wedgetail cut called the most perverse decision in the command paper, the Hercules retirement said to have severely reduced air mobility, and pilot training delays called completely unacceptable
- Forces News: RAF turns to US to help as more than 300 held up in its training programmethe written answer of 10 October 2022: about 30 held pre-flying training and about 280 between Military Flying Training System courses
- UK Defence Journal: Dozens of RAF fast jet trainees stuck in pipeline9 June 2026, reporting written answers: 119 fast-jet trainees at 1 June 2026, 36 on holdover and 12 awaiting an operational conversion unit
- UK Defence Journal: MoD sets out retirement and fleet numbers for Typhoonwritten answers of 1 September 2025: Tranche 1 out of service in 2027 and Tranches 2 and 3 in 2040; four Tranche 1, 67 Tranche 2 and 40 Tranche 3 aircraft; 26 of 30 Tranche 1 machines scrapped by 1 July 2025
- UK Defence Journal: RAF Wedgetail update — testing under way at Lossiemouth21 June 2026, reporting a written answer: the first aircraft arrived at RAF Lossiemouth at the end of May 2026, the second was about to begin testing, the third was in modification at Birmingham, and the sustainment contract was signed in March 2026
- UK Defence Journal: New jets confirmed for Red Arrows in Hawk replacement30 June 2026: 360 million pounds to recapitalise jet training, no aircraft named, and the T-7A, M-346 and T-50 in contention
- European Security and Defence: Protector RG1 UAV has officially entered RAF service16 June 2025, No. 31 Squadron at RAF Waddington, 16 ordered, Paveway IV and Brimstone 3, and the succession from the Reaper
- Janes: RAF reconstitutes 31 Squadron as new Protector unitthe reformation of No. 31 Squadron at RAF Waddington and No. XIII Squadron as the second front-line Protector unit
- Janes: UK DIP 2026 — Chinook Force to face temporary but significant reduction ahead of planned new buy for 2030sthe variant split of about 8 HC5, 14 HC6 and 29 HC6A, the retirement of all HC6As by 2030, and the March 2024 contract for 14 H-47(ER) for delivery 2028 to 2032
- FlightGlobal: RAF waves last Puma transport helicopters into retirementfarewell flights on 26 March 2025 after almost 54 years, with No. 33 Squadron the last operator
- Forces News: Jupiter HC2 — the RAF’s small and agile replacement for the Puma enters servicesix H145 D3, in service 18 December 2025 at RAF Benson, deploying to Brunei and Cyprus, replacing the Bell 212, Bell 412 and part of the Puma task
- Forces News: End of an era — C-130J Hercules makes final RAF flights28 June 2023, after 56 years, with No. 47 Squadron the last operator
- United Kingdom Military Aeronautical Information Publication, AD 2 aerodrome textual dataNo. 1 Aeronautical Information Documents Unit; aerodrome reference point coordinates, elevation, runway designators, lengths and surfaces for every military aerodrome here
- United Kingdom Aeronautical Information Publication, AD 2 (NATS)civil AIP, AIRAC 3 September 2026; used for Aldergrove, Cornwall Airport Newquay, Leeds East, Biggin Hill and Duxford
- Royal Air Force: our stationsthe service’s own index of stations
- Royal Air Force: No 1 Groupcombat air, air mobility, ISTAR and the display teams
- Royal Air Force: No 2 Groupair bases and global enablement
- Royal Air Force: No 11 Groupair command and control, UK air defence, No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group
- Royal Air Force: No 22 Grouptraining; names the stations under it
- Royal Air Force Lossiemouthstation page: based squadrons and role
- Royal Air Force Coningsbystation page: based squadrons, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and the Typhoon Display Team
- Royal Air Force Marhamstation page: the Lightning Force, including 809 Naval Air Squadron
- Royal Air Force Brize Nortonstation page: air mobility squadrons and reserve squadrons
- Royal Air Force Waddingtonstation page: ISTAR squadrons and station aircraft
- Royal Air Force Odihamstation page: the UK Chinook Force
- Royal Air Force Bensonstation page: helicopter squadrons and lodger units
- Royal Air Force Valleystation page: No. 4 Flying Training School and the Mountain Rescue Service
- Royal Air Force Shawburystation page: tri-service helicopter training
- Royal Air Force Cranwellstation page: the RAF College and No. 3 Flying Training School
- Royal Air Force Witteringstation page: Support Force headquarters, flying training and station history
- Royal Air Force Northoltstation page: command support air transport
- Royal Air Force Leemingstation page: expeditionary air operations units
- Royal Air Force Akrotiristation page: the Cyprus Operations Support Unit and No. 84 Squadron
- Mount Pleasant Complexstation page: Nos. 1435, 1312 and 1310 Flights, and the 1985 opening
- Royal Air Force Gibraltarstation page: staging post role and the runway crossed by a public road
- Ascension Island Basestation page: role, chain of command and current commanders
- Royal Air Force Honingtonstation page: RAF Regiment and RAF Police headquarters, and station history
- Royal Air Force Cosfordstation page: the Defence College of Technical Training
- Royal Air Force Woodvalestation page: units and a dated station history
- Royal Air Force Syerstonstation page: No. 2 Flying Training School and its satellite gliding airfields
- Royal Air Force Boulmerstation page: the control and reporting centre and a dated history
- Royal Air Force Wytonstation page: states plainly that Wyton is no longer an operational airfield
- Royal Air Force High Wycombestation page: Headquarters Air Command, the Groups and UK Space Command
- Royal Air Force St Mawganstation page: the 2008 sale of the runway and the SERE training role
- Royal Air Force Digbystation page: signals units and the station’s fighter and RCAF history
- Royal Air Force Fylingdalesstation page: ballistic missile early warning, 1963 and 1992
- Royal Air Force Haltonstation page: recruit training and the apprentice history
- Royal Air Force Henlowstation page: lodger units and station history
- Royal Air Force Spadeadamstation page: the electronic warfare tactics range and the Blue Streak history
- Leuchars Stationstation page: army ownership, the RAF aerodrome unit and the 2014 and 2015 dates
- VIII SquadronWedgetail AEW Mk1 at Lossiemouth, moved from Waddington in 2021
- 42 (TB) SquadronISTAR operational conversion unit, Poseidon and Wedgetail
- 10 SquadronVoyager at Brize Norton
- 101 SquadronVoyager at Brize Norton
- 99 SquadronGlobemaster C-17 at Brize Norton
- XXIV SquadronGlobemaster and Atlas at Brize Norton
- 30 SquadronAtlas C1 at Brize Norton
- 47 SquadronBrize Norton; the page names no current type
- LXX SquadronAtlas C1 at Brize Norton
- 206 Test and Evaluation SquadronAtlas C1 at Brize Norton
- XIII SquadronProtector RG Mk 1 at Waddington
- 31 SquadronProtector RG Mk 1 at Waddington
- 14 SquadronShadow R1 at Waddington
- 51 SquadronRC-135W Rivet Joint at Waddington
- 54 SquadronISTAR operational conversion unit at Waddington
- 56 Test and Evaluation SquadronWaddington; no aircraft listed
- 92 SquadronWaddington; tactics and training, no aircraft listed
- 28(AC) SquadronChinook, the support helicopter operational conversion unit at Benson
- XXII Squadronoperational evaluation unit of Joint Helicopter Command at Benson
- IV SquadronHawk T2 at Valley
- XXV (F) SquadronHawk T2 at Valley
- 72 SquadronTexan T1 at Valley
- 202 SquadronJuno HT1 and Jupiter HT1 at Valley
- 60 SquadronJuno and Jupiter at Shawbury, part of No. 1 Flying Training School
- 16 SquadronRAF Wittering; the squadron page gives Tutor T1 where the station page gives Prefect
- 115 SquadronTutor T1 at Wittering
- XXXII SquadronEnvoy IV CC1 at Northolt
- 100 SquadronRAF Leeming; threat replication and close air support training
- 78 SquadronSwanwick; area air traffic management, no aircraft
- 612 Squadron RAuxAFLeuchars Station; aeromedical evacuation, no aircraft
- Royal Air Force Red ArrowsHawk T1, based at RAF Waddington
- RAF Red Arrows move to new Lincolnshire homethe October 2022 move from Scampton to Waddington
- Puma’s final flypastthe Puma HC2 farewell flight on 26 March 2025 after 54 years
- Lodgement ceremony for 33 and 230 Squadron standardsboth squadrons’ standards lodged at RAF Cranwell on 15 October 2025
- Jupiter HC2 enters service with Joint Aviation Commandfirst of six H145 D3 in service at RAF Benson on 17 December 2025
- New helicopters restore year-round response capability in Cyprusthree Jupiter HC Mk2 with No. 84 Squadron, first flight from Akrotiri on 9 July 2026
- RAF Akrotiri helicopter capability transfers from Griffin to PumaGriffin HAR2 final sortie 31 March 2023; Puma took over from 1 April 2023
- A Better Defence Estate, Ministry of Defence, November 2016the disposal table, including RAF Henlow technical site and airfield by 2020
- Defence Minister outlines progress on building a Better Defence Estate, GOV.UKthe RAF to stop using Linton-on-Ouse by 2020 and Scampton by 2022
- UK Defence Journal: New F-35As not bought for nuclear role, says BeckAir Vice-Marshal Jim Beck, 15 July 2026, on the purpose of the twelve F-35As
- UK Military AIP, AD 2.2 aerodrome geographical and administrative data (EGXX-Name-Textual.pdf per aerodrome)Audit only, no changes: ARP checked for 30 military aerodromes (Lossiemouth, Coningsby, Marham, Brize Norton, Waddington, Odiham, Benson, Valley, Shawbury, Cranwell, Wittering, Northolt, Leeming, Akrotiri, Mount Pleasant, Gibraltar, Woodvale, Syerston, Cosford, Honington, Halton, Boscombe Down, Leuchars, Barkston Heath, Mona, Topcliffe, Little Rissington, Kenley, Kirknewton, Wattisham); every file value matches the published ARP to 0.00001 deg, sign and hemisphere correct.
- UK AIP (NATS Aurora eAIP), AD 2.2, AIRAC 2026-09-03Audit only, no changes: EGAA Aldergrove, EGHQ Newquay (St Mawgan), EGCM Leeds East (Church Fenton), EGKB Biggin Hill, EGSU Duxford ARPs match the file exactly.
- Hangars 1-4 (C-type hangars), Scampton, National Heritage List for England entry 1391594NGR SK 96657 79081 (Hangar 1, first of four NGRs given); point is on the airfield hangar line, not an ARP. Converted from OSGB36 National Grid to WGS84 with the Ordnance Survey 7-parameter Helmert transformation (accuracy about 5 m); converter checked against the OS worked example (Caister water tower).
- Buildings 186, 187, 188 and 189 (Aircraft Hangars), RAF Henlow, NHLE entry 1391623NGR TL 16614 36260; point is the listed hangar group on the station. Converted from OSGB36 National Grid to WGS84 with the Ordnance Survey 7-parameter Helmert transformation (accuracy about 5 m); converter checked against the OS worked example (Caister water tower).
- World War II fighter pen, Cold War blast walls and associated remains at the airfield formerly known as RAF Coltishall, Scottow, NHLE entry 1021425 (scheduled monument)NGR TG 26786 23378 (first of two NGRs); point is on the former airfield. Converted from OSGB36 National Grid to WGS84 with the Ordnance Survey 7-parameter Helmert transformation (accuracy about 5 m); converter checked against the OS worked example (Caister water tower).
- RAF Spadeadam: Blue Streak Rocket, Kingwater, NHLE entry 1413245NGR NY 61528 70358; the listed rocket stands at the station’s administrative and missile assembly area (NHLE 1413095 places the adjacent BOC plant 120 m north of it). Station camp, not the range. Converted from OSGB36 National Grid to WGS84 with the Ordnance Survey 7-parameter Helmert transformation (accuracy about 5 m); converter checked against the OS worked example (Caister water tower).
- Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer (Lincolnshire County Council HER), monument record MLI60621, RAF DigbyCentred TF 0445 5699 (1923 m by 1423 m), estimated from sources: centre of the station/airfield polygon. Converted from OSGB36 National Grid to WGS84 with the Ordnance Survey 7-parameter Helmert transformation (accuracy about 5 m); converter checked against the OS worked example (Caister water tower).
- Keys to the Past (Northumberland HER), site N20030, Boulmer Airfield (Longhoughton)NGR NU 259 133 (100 m precision); the airfield site that is today RAF Boulmer. The remote radar head at Brizlee Wood is elsewhere. Converted from OSGB36 National Grid to WGS84 with the Ordnance Survey 7-parameter Helmert transformation (accuracy about 5 m); converter checked against the OS worked example (Caister water tower).
- Historic England Research Report 128/1998, RAF Fylingdales, Lockton, North Yorkshire (Roger Thomas)Site NGR SE 8641 9755 (Snod Hill, Lockton High Moor), 10 m precision. Converted from OSGB36 National Grid to WGS84 with the Ordnance Survey 7-parameter Helmert transformation (accuracy about 5 m); converter checked against the OS worked example (Caister water tower).
- Buckinghamshire’s Heritage Portal (Buckinghamshire Council HER), monument record 0950900000 / MBC24925, Strike Command (Bomber/Strike Command, Walters Ash)Centred SU 83031 98289 (1101 m by 1383 m): centre of the RAF High Wycombe site. The underground operations block (MBC24926) is at SU 82903 98594. Converted from OSGB36 National Grid to WGS84 with the Ordnance Survey 7-parameter Helmert transformation (accuracy about 5 m); converter checked against the OS worked example (Caister water tower).
- Royal Air Force: GroupsThe four groups under Air and Space Command
- Royal Air Force: No 1 GroupCombat Air, Air Mobility and ISTAR forces and the Air and Space Warfare Centre
- Royal Air Force: No 2 GroupSupport force, RAF Regiment and RAuxAF squadrons
- Royal Air Force: No 11 GroupCommand and control of air operations; re-formed 1 November 2018
- Royal Air Force: No 22 GroupTraining; headquarters at RAF Cranwell
- Forces News: RAF Hawk T1 and T2s grounded for investigation following crash on training flight in North Wales24 September 2026; RAF statement that Hawk T1 and T2 flying was paused
Figures verified 2026-09-24. Order of Battle pages are regenerated from a single dataset; if a number here disagrees with a Book of Beasts page, this page is the more recent of the two.
Photographs: Photo: Cpl. Andy Benson / Wikimedia Commons (Open Government Licence) · Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4. Colin Cooke Photo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Royal Air Force Lightning F-35B. Julian Herzog / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0) · Royal Air Force Poseidon MRA1. Julian Herzog / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0) · Royal Air Force Wedgetail AEW1. Ministry of Defence / Wikimedia Commons (Open Government Licence) · Royal Air Force Airseeker RC-135W Rivet Joint. Alan Wilson from Peterborough, Cambs, UK / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Royal Air Force Shadow R1. Jerry Gunner / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Royal Air Force Atlas C1. Steve Lynes from Sandshurst, United Kingdom / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Royal Air Force Globemaster C-17A. Airman 1st Class Tiffany Deuel / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Royal Air Force Voyager KC2/KC3. Steve Lynes from Sandshurst, United Kingdom / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Royal Air Force Envoy IV CC1. Paul Crouch, RAF Brize Norton Photographic Section / Wikimedia Commons (Open Government Licence) · Royal Air Force Chinook HC6A. Steve Lynes from Sandshurst, United Kingdom / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Royal Air Force Hawk T2. Ian Gratton from Sutton-in-Craven, North Yorkshire, England / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Royal Air Force Hawk T1. Vitaly V. Kuzmin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Royal Air Force Texan T1. Jim van de Burgt from Wijk bij Duurstede, Netherlands / Wikimedia Commons (CC0) · Royal Air Force Prefect T1. Colin Cooke Photo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Royal Air Force Phenom T1. Jim van de Burgt from Wijk bij Duurstede, Netherlands / Wikimedia Commons (CC0) · Royal Air Force Tutor T1. Adrian Pingstone / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Royal Air Force Juno HT1. Ian Forshaw / Wikimedia Commons (Open Government Licence) · Royal Air Force Jupiter HT1. Ian Forshaw / Wikimedia Commons (Open Government Licence) · Royal Air Force Reaper. 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RAF / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Royal Air Force Nimrod. Les Chatfield from Brighton, England / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Royal Air Force Nimrod R1. Oren Rozen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Royal Air Force Nimrod MRA4. Ronnie Macdonald / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Royal Air Force Dominie T1. Rob Schleiffert from Holland / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Royal Air Force Sea King HAR3/HAR3A. Robert Lamb / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) · RAF Wessex HCC4 of The Queen’s Flight shown. Robert Lamb / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Royal Air Force Merlin HC3/HC3A. Ronnie Macdonald from Chelmsford, United Kingdom / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Royal Air Force Britannia C1/C2. Photographed by Adrian Pingstone in 1964 and released to the public domain. / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Royal Air Force Belfast C1. Rob Hodgkins / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Royal Air Force Spitfire. 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