UK Armed Forces
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Royal Air Force / Fleet Air Arm / Army Air Corps
UK Armed Forces
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The United Kingdom defence force is one of the largest in Europe. Over the years the British forces have proven themselves many times in combat. Of course during both the First and Second World War, but also more recent during wars and conflicts like the Korean Conflict (1950-1951), Falklands War (1982), First Gulf War (1991) , Kosovo Conflict (1999), Afghanistan (since 2001) and Second Gulf War (since 2003). In 1998 a Strategic Defence Review (SDR) was conducted to lead the British forces into the 21st century. One of the most eye-catching results of this was the creation of various multi-service commands like the Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) and Joint Force Harrier (JFH).
On these pages you will find a detailed review of all aviation units of the Royal Air Force, Army Air Corps, Fleet Air Arm and Ministry of Defence. Due to changing budgets, political movements, terrorism and other factors the order of battle keeps on changing. We will however try to keep it up to date to the best of our ability so please visit our website regularly a send in any additional information to the following e-mail address: uk@scramble.nl

Because of the size of the forces we decided to split this overview in to several parts: One for the Air Force, one for the RAF glider units (Air Cadets), one for the Navy, one for the Army and one for other Government Agencies which uses aircraft.
Of course a database and links to other related pages are available.
These OrBats have already been published in a more extensive manner in our magazine (Issue 272, January 2002), which was the start of a series of articles on all current squadrons in the armed forces. If you want to obtain these back-issues, please look at The Scramble Shop, or even better; Subscribe !!


Sections
The following sections are available:
Royal Air Force
RAF Order of Battle
 RAF Gliders
Fleet Air Arm
FAA Order of Battle
Army Air Corps
AAC Order of Battle
Other Services
MoD & Joint Services
The Database
Links to other pages  
  The Tornado F3 is still the backbone of the British Air Defence but its days are numbered. No. 56(R)sq at RAF Coningsby, the operator of the aircraft shown above, will be the first squadron to convert to the Typhoon. The squadron will act as Operational Conversion Unit to train future frontline air crew. The first frontline squadron to receive the Typhoon will be No. 5sq which is also based at RAF Coningsby.
Photo: Paul Sliwinski

In total four RAF squadrons are equipped with the Sepcat Jaguar and all four are based at RAF Coltishall. No. 16(R)sq acts as Operational Conversion Unit and the other three squadrons, including No. 41sq of which a Jaguar can be seen above during take-off, are used for frontline duties. By early 2002 all Jaguars were modified to GR3, GR3A or T4 standard and they will serve with the RAF for several years to come until they are replaced by the ground attack version of the Typhoon.
Photo: Cees van der Velden