Air Power 2017

48 AIR POWER 2017

21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS

21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS

handful of metres away from friendly forces and under
incredible pressure; precision strikes within 70 metres or
fewer of our coalition partners to save lives and break
contacts; and weapon fusing that allows us to target
snipers on individual floors in multistorey buildings.
Some of these missions will rightly live long in
the memory. These include: the rapid intervention
by a Reaper crew to break up an imminent public
execution by engaging a Daesh sniper without
harming any civilians; the Tornado crew engaging
a Daesh vehicle convoy while low on fuel and with
scant minutes to execute multiple precision strikes;
and a Typhoon defending Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF) north of Tabqa dam from a Daesh counter-
attack – the first weapon released in anger by a
young pilot on his first operational mission.

INTELLIGENCE-LED OPERATIONS
The performance and output of our ISR crews and the
intelligence and imagery analysts that exploit their
products are no less remarkable. Our Sentinel aircraft
provide more than 25% of key coalition stand-off
radar-derived imagery of hostile (and friendly)
manoeuvre on the ground in Iraq and Syria. It has
become an essential aid to top-level commanders
and has become the exemplar across the coalition.
The strikes conducted by our Reaper crews already
noted are only part of the contribution. Operating for

numerous hours over Mosul, Raqqa and many other

towns and cities, they have established a knowledge

of their operating environments that has few peers,

and are often the first to pick up on something that

doesn’t look right. As part of a wider enterprise of

coalition ISR assets, our Reapers are routinely “cross-

cued” by other aircraft, or tasked to investigate

locations briefed to them by forces on the ground.

This “big-to-small” surveillance allows for the most

efficient use of our aircraft and develops critical insights

into both Daesh front-line activity and the logistics and

transportation that supports them. As such, it is a central

part of our deliberate targeting, allowing the coalition to

strike Daesh military targets many miles from an active

front. RAF aircraft have destroyed weapons caches

and production facilities, Daesh command and control

centres and headquarters, and other locations where

Daesh fighters assemble before deploying forward.

During the past year, particular emphasis has been

placed on countering both commercially procured

and Daesh-developed drones, quadcopters and other

unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Much of this work is

highly sensitive, but UK and RAF intelligence analysts

have been at the heart of the coalition effort. The

impact has been profound and has directly saved many

Iraqi security-force and civilian lives. RAF fast jets have

also struck a number of locations in Iraq related to

Daesh’s UAV capability, and this work continues apace.

DAESH IN RETREAT

Throughout 2016 and the first part of 2017, Daesh has lost

ground across Iraq and Syria. From threatening Baghdad

in 2014, they are now reduced to desperately defending

a few districts in west Mosul. Elsewhere in Iraq, the

remaining isolated pockets of Daesh-held territory will be

tackled in the coming months. In Syria, Daesh is in retreat

on all fronts: Tabqa has fallen and the SDF are making

great strides towards wresting Raqqa back from Daesh.

No one underestimates how challenging these

remaining fights will be – Daesh has shown utter

disregard for human lives, including those of their

own forces, but there will only be one outcome:

their defeat and destruction in both Iraq and Syria,

and the demise of the brutal, so-called caliphate.

For those RAF servicemen and women who have

and will continue to be part of Operation Shader, there

is justified yet quiet pride in providing their unstinting,

utterly professional contribution to this vital coalition

campaign and the fight against Daesh. The RAF has

also learnt much from the past few years, and our

analysis of the UK and coalition air contribution will

inform our equipment procurement and, perhaps

most importantly, the conceptual development of the

Service: our tactics, command and control in the air

environment, and how we prepare and develop our

operators and our commanders, including me.

Reaper RPAS,

operated remotely

by RAF crews in

the UK and US

over Iraq and

Syria, are often the

first to notice and

react to suspicious

behaviour on the

ground below

(PHOTO: © CROWN

COPYRIGHT)

Daesh has shown utter

disregard for human

lives, including those

of their own forces