IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST – AT HOME AND ABROAD
42 AIR POWER 2017INTERVIEW
As RAF Lossiemouth
says goodbye to its last
Tornado fast jets, Simon
Michell talks to the Station
Commander, Group
Captain Paul Godfrey,
about the new aircraft
that will take its place
Situated about 40 miles north-east of
Inverness, RAF Lossiemouth is one of the
Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) busiest fast jet
air bases. In 2014, it took on the Quick
Reaction Alert (QRA) role alongside
RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.
RAF Lossiemouth’s task, officially
dubbed QRA (Interceptor) North, tends
to focus on intercepting long-range
Russian aviation. According to the
Station Commander, Group Captain
(Gp Capt) Paul Godfrey, “Each base
carries out the full range of QRA missions,
but with RAF Coningsby’s proximity
to the London commercial air traffic
hubs they tend to focus on passenger
aircraft that have failed to check in on
their radios with Air Traffic Control,
whereas here at Lossie we look further
north to intercept Russian Long Range
Aviation (LRA) that probe UK airspace.”A GLOBAL ROLE
RAF Lossiemouth also has a global role,
with aircraft, crew and Force Protection
deployed to operations worldwide, as
well as providing assitance to the military
and civilians in the region through their
Mountain Rescue Team. To illustrate
this international responsibility, Gp Capt
Godfrey explains, “At the moment, we
have personnel from 5 Force Protection
Wing deployed to Nigeria, teaching their
equivalents how we carry out Force
Protection in the air environment. We have
one of our Typhoon Squadrons deployed
to Cyprus in support of Operation Shader,
as well as personnel in other roles in the
Falkland Islands and the Middle East.”
With the last Panavia Tornado leaving
the station in May 2017, following the
disbandment of the Tornado Operational
Conversion Unit, RAF Lossiemouth now has
space for an additional Typhoon Squadron,which will begin to form in 2018, reaching
initial operating capability in April 2019. At
around the same time, RAF Lossiemouth
will welcome its first permanently based
P-8 Poseidon aircraft. The facilities are being
planned and work will begin in October.
Gp Capt Godfrey points out, however, that
RAF Lossiemouth is no stranger to the
P-8 or, indeed, large military aircraft: “We
have been handling P-8s for a long time,
especially during the Joint Warrior exercises
that take place in Scotland twice a year. And
we have been operating other maritime
patrol aircraft (MPA) as our allies have been
helping us with the maritime patrol task.”
Gp Capt Godfrey is looking forward to
the arrival of the P-8s as he is a tremendous
advocate of their multi-role capability.
“To think of P-8 as an MPA is doing it a
disservice. I think there is room for a huge
amount of expansion in its role. It is really
up to us to use our imaginations as to how
we put it to use in the future,” he says.
“I think P-8 has an incredibly exciting
future, not just for the RAF, but with
all our allies who also operate or will
operate the aircraft. The possibilities
are endless,” he concludes.GROUP CAPTAIN PAUL GODFREY
STATION COMMANDER
A line-up of Eurofighter Typhoons on the apron at RAF Lossiemouth (PHOTO: SAC LAURA BULLAS / © CROWN COPYRIGHT)
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