Air Power 2017

AIR POWER 2017 47

21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS

21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS

Precision munitions

from RAF multirole

jets – such as the

Typhoon, pictured

during refuelling by

a US Air Force tanker

over Iraq – have

engaged Daesh

terrorists in the

tightest of corners

(PHOTO: US AIR FORCE/

STAFF SGT COREY HOOK)

areas as Russian and Syrian aircraft; numerous factions
fighting with and against each other on the ground;
some exceptionally busy airspace; and targeting an
enemy deliberately using civilians as human shields
and hostages within dense urban environments.
It has taken every ounce of professional skill and
judgement and it is an immense and humbling privilege
to command such a fine group of men and women. As
their predecessors would recognise from the almost 100
years of the RAF, they take pride in making the difficult
look easy, and the exceedingly hard nothing to waste
too many words on. The reality is somewhat different.

CHALLENGING CONDITIONS
For our Tornado and Typhoon aircrew, an average
Operation Shader mission lasts between six and
seven hours. In that time, they will conduct multiple
air-refuelling brackets with our Voyager tanker aircraft
and other coalition refuelling jets, receiving tonnes
of fuel and remaining on station for several hours.
Perhaps surprisingly, weather in the Middle East can be
variable and none too pleasant: violent thunderstorms,
hail and lightning at one end of the spectrum, strong
winds, reduced visibility, dust storms and exceptional
heat at the other. For our engineers, coping with
flooding on one detachment will be replaced by heat
acclimatisation and SPF50 sunscreen on the next.
For the majority of the past 12 or more months, our
fast jets and ISR aircraft have been directly engaged in
demanding urban operations. A sense of the tempo can

be seen from our targeting teams in the Combined Air

Operations Centre. Multiple dynamic strikes a day, fusing

numerous sources of intelligence to ensure that our

crews engage the right targets while avoiding civilian

casualties is always at the forefront of people’s minds.

UNPRECEDENTED PRECISION

Every single strike has to be approved in accordance

with the Laws of Armed Conflict and in harmony with

national policy. Then our crews have to identify and

engage targets that require a degree of precision in

engagement and execution that has probably never

been achieved at this scale and duration before. And

the targets are exceptionally challenging: defensive

fire positions established in houses, apartment blocks

and industrial buildings; vehicle-borne improvised

explosive devices (VBIEDs) that might be as

seemingly innocuous as a motorbike or as lethal and

indiscriminate as an explosive-rigged fuel tanker; and

Daesh fighters hiding among innocent civilians, or

even forcing them in front as a defensive screen.

There have been numerous occasions when – even

though cleared to engage legitimate targets – our

crews have delayed engaging the enemy until certain

of avoiding civilian casualties, or have diverted weapons

after launch (a “shift cold”) to avoid innocent people

when the situation has changed on the ground.

Equally, there has been quite exceptional weapons

employment: mortars engaged under tree canopies, in

courtyards and in doorways; VBIEDs struck when only a