The Royal British Air Force was created in 1918 to protect the borders of the United Kingdom. The Air Force is subordinate to the Ministry of Defense and performs the tasks defined by the country's top military leadership.
Aviation and Economics
The British Air Force aircraft never participated in military companies, the squadrons for years do not update the fleet of aircraft. Due to the low activity, the military aviation department in 1990 began to reduce personnel, which over the course of twelve years, from 1990 to 2002, decreased from 92 to 54 thousand people. The financial costs of maintaining the Air Force were substantially cut. In 2007, the number of command personnel, pilots and maintenance personnel amounted to 47,712 people, and the technical base included 828 aircraft and helicopters. Obsolete equipment was decommissioned, new aircraft were mothballed.
In 2010, the need arose to update the fleet, both for combat and auxiliary purposes. The expansion of the material base was associated with the difficult political situation in several countries at once, primarily in Libya and Morocco. The Parliament of Great Britain adopted a number of recommendations stimulating the acquisition of new equipment, aircraft, helicopters and airfield equipment.
The upgraded Tornado GR4 and Typhoons were purchased. Additional transport aircraft were supplied by Vickers, model VC-10, which features a long fuselage. The "ten" can accommodate up to three hundred people and can be very useful when transporting people over long distances.
Structure
Currently, the British Air Force consists of three air groups. The first includes all combat aircraft, attack aircraft, fighters and bombers. The group has several of its own training high-speed attack aircraft, on which pilots practice new maneuvers. A certain number of military vehicles combine two functions - a fighter and a bomber. This versatility allows you to minimize the number of aircraft flying on a mission.
UK Air Force Fighters
The first air group includes 12 squadrons deployed in different regions of the country. The main backbone of attack aircraft is the GR4 Tornado aircraft. The task of the fighters are military operations in the air and the defeat of ground targets. The effectiveness of the Tornado is very high. There are 95 units in the 1st Air Group and all of them are fighter-bombers. The group also includes 22 Tornado reconnaissance aircraft.
F1 fighters in the squadrons of the 1st Avigroup, there are 100 units.
The commander of the 1st group is the vice marshal of aviation Christopher Harper. In his apparatus are 12 senior and junior officers.
Second Air Group
This aviation unit includes twenty-two squadrons, including support aircraft. Cars in the hangars are both ultramodern and seasoned, produced in past years. There is enough work for both. Currently, the squadrons of the second air group are equipped with airplanes and helicopters of the following brands:
- "Chinook HC2".
- Sea King NAR3.
- "Hercules C4."
- "Merlin HC3".
- "Puma HC1".
- "Griffin NT".
- Globemaster III.
- VC-10.
Group number 22
The British Air Force also includes Air Group 22, a training unit to enhance the pilots' flight skills. The group has aircraft equipped with special equipment.
These are the models:
- "Domini T1."
- Squirell.
- "Tucano."
- Hawk TA;
The best aircraft of the British Air Force
Squadrons of the United Kingdom are equipped with various combat vehicles. Among them may be American and French brands, German and Swedish. However, the most common model of a combat aircraft is the GR4 Tornado, the brainchild of the German Messerschmidt concern. In second place is the Typhoon fighter, an efficient machine for conducting air combat. Both aircraft are in service with NATO, Britain, Germany, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
The British Air Force Tornado aircraft has established itself as a trouble-free attack fighter. In the case of the participation of the British armed forces in any international conflict, fighters and attack-bombers are redeployed to NATO airbase, located in the immediate vicinity of the theater of operations. After reconnaissance, the squadron begins combat sorties, while the Tornado of the British Air Force is always in the forefront of attackers.
Tornado GR4
The Panavia Tornado turbojet combat aircraft is available in two versions: a fighter-bomber, GR4 index, and a reconnaissance-interceptor - GR4A.
Design features include wings with variable geometry, which is an important advantage in air combat. Double "Tornado" is always ready to perform any tasks to destroy the enemy, regardless of weather conditions and time of day. The aircraft is equipped with a special scanner that provides information about approaching the surface of the earth. Almost "Tornado" is able to fly blindly.
The machine is equipped with electronic means of reconnaissance and target detection, this is primarily the Raptor system. Of the most recent achievements, this is laser targeting and the LRMTS system, capable of finding a previously marked target.
Combat use:
- 1991, the Gulf War, 41 aircraft participated;
- 1998-2011, a military company in Iraq;
- 1999, war in Kosovo; 2011, military conflict in Libya;
- 2012, the war in Afghanistan, continues to the present;
Fighter Typhoon
The development of a combat vehicle was begun in 1988, corporatively, in several countries at once. In 1998, the United Kingdom acquired 53 fighters for its Air Force. Initially, aircraft were supposed to be used only in air battles, but as needed, during the fighting in Afghanistan, fighters began to be used, like bombers, to destroy ground targets.
In 2008, the Typhoon was officially recognized as a multirole fighter.
Specifications:
- aircraft length - 16.8 meters;
- height - 6 meters;
- wingspan, maximum - 13.9 meters;
- carrying capacity - 9 tons;
- weight - 14,100 kg;
- power plant - two Rolls-Royce turbojet engines with a thrust of 7620 kg / cm;
- speed close to maximum - 2340 km / h;
- ceiling - 15 thousand meters;
- runway - 760 meters;
Armament:
- Mauser system guns, two barrels;
- ALARM missiles, up to nine;
- ASRAAM air-to-air missiles;
- Brimstone and Shadow Storm missiles;
- Payway 2 bombs and the four hundred kilogram Penguin bombs;
- complex surveillance and intelligence systems;
Transport aircraft
In addition to military vehicles, the British Air Force is also provided with trucks. Transport heavyweights, such as Globmaster III, Boeing C17A, Lockheed 1011 American-made, Vickers VC-10 British, were purchased in large quantities.
Given the need for constant redeployment, cargo aircraft were indispensable helpers, providing transportation of multi-ton weapons and property over long distances for several days. The importance of transport operations is difficult to overestimate; the squadron was supplied with everything necessary without fail and in the shortest possible time.
An important role was played by heavy helicopters such as Merlin NS3, Chinook C2, Westland Puma. These vehicles transported goods of a quarterly destination within the base and airfield.