Right: RAF
Tornados
will support
the ‘Shader’
mission almost
to the end of
their service life
in March 2019.
Jamie Hunter
Below:
As a Typhoon
taxies onto
chocks in the
expeditionary
forces aircraft
shelter system
(EFASS) — also
known as a ‘rez’
— the supporting
Voyager tanker
is on short fi nals
to land.
Jamie HunterTyphoon on the front line
Following a vote in the British parliament
on December 2, 2015 to expand Operation
‘Shader’ beyond Iraq, the RAF immediately
joined coalition partners engaged in air
strikes against IS targets inside Syria. At the
same time the RAF moved to bolster its
Cyprus detachment by adding six Tranche
2 Typhoon FGR4s from the Lossiemouth
Wing, simultaneously increasing the
Tornado detachment to eight jets. The
Typhoons joined the Tornados and ew
their rst missions on December 4. Each
Typhoon carried four Paveway IV bombs,
plus AIM-120 AMRAAMs (Advanced
Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles) for self-
protection as they struck a large oil eld in
eastern Syria.
Eight GR4s and six Typhoons have
been deployed ever since. The imminent
retirement of the GR4, coupled with the
high operational tempo of the RAF’s ve
front-line Typhoon squadrons and the
enduring ‘Shader’ mission, led to calls to
increase its mass through the retention
of a number of early Tranche 1 Typhoons.
This manifested itself in the Strategic
Defence and Security Review (SDSR) of- The current ve front-line Typhoon
squadrons — two at RAF Coningsby,
three at RAF Lossiemouth — are being
boosted by the addition of No IX
(Bomber) Squadron, which will convert
directly from the Tornado to the Typhoon
next year. An additional unit and a joint
Qatari/UK squadron will give a total of
eight front-line squadrons — seven by
2019 and the eighth in 2020.AKROTIRI ART
http://www.combataircraft.net // November 2018 89