The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918 through the merger of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Following the Allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918, they emerged as the largest air force in the world.Air Power and Colonial Control: The Royal Air Force, 1919–1939 By David E. Omissi, Published 1 January 1990, Retrieved 1 February 2014. Page 8. Since its formation, they have played a significant role in British military history. In particular, during the Second World War, they defeated the German Luftwaffe's efforts to establish air superiority over Great Britain during the Battle of Britain, and played a key role in the Combined Bomber Offensive alongside the USAAF.BBC: Fact File: The RAF , retrieved 1 February 2014
The RAF's mission is to support the objectives of the British Ministry of Defence (MOD), which are to "provide the capabilities needed to ensure the security and defence of the United Kingdom and overseas territories, including against terrorism; to support the Government's foreign policy objectives particularly in promoting international peace and security". Its mission statement as "... [to provide] an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission". The mission statement is supported by the RAF's definition of air power, which guides its strategy. Air power is defined as "the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events".
Today, the Royal Air Force maintains an operational fleet of various types of aircraft, described as being "leading-edge" in terms of technology.Royal Air Force: Our high-tech gear , retrieved 1 February 2014 This largely consists of fixed-wing aircraft, including those in the following roles: fighter and strike, airborne early warning and control, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR), signals intelligence (SIGINT), maritime patrol, air-to-air refueling (AAR) and strategic & tactical transport. The majority of the their rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Aviation Command in support of ground forces. Most of their aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on global operations (principally over Iraq and Syria) or at long-established overseas bases (Ascension Island, Cyprus, Gibraltar, and the Falkland Islands). Although they are the principal British air power arm, the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and the British Army's Army Air Corps also operate armed aircraft.
History
Origins The Royal Air Force was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918 by merging the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). This made it the second independent air force in the world after the Finnish Air Force (established 6 March 1918).Keskinen, Kalevi, Partonen, Kyösti & Stenman, Kari: Suomen ilmavoimat I 1918–1927. Tietoteos, 2005. ISBN 952-99432-2-9.
The merger was initially recommended by a report issued on 17 August 1917 by the South African statesman and general Jan Smuts, with significant contributions from Lieutenant General David Henderson. The Smuts Report informed the creation of the Air Force (Constitution) Bill, which made provision for the creation of an independent Air Force. This was passed by Parliament on 23 November 1917, and received royal assent as the (7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 51) on 29 November 1917. On 7 March 1918, King George V issued a royal decree naming the new service the 'Royal Air Force'. At the time of its formation, it was the largest air force in the world. Its first headquarters were the former Hotel Cecil on the Strand in London.
After the war, their size was drastically cut, and its inter-war years were relatively quiet. They were put in charge of British military activity in Iraq, and carried out minor actions in other parts of the British Empire, including establishing bases to protect Singapore and Malaya. Their naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm, was founded in 1924 but handed over to Admiralty control on 24 May 1939. In 1925, they carried out their first independent operation, conducting a successful air campaign against rebelling Mahsud tribesmen during Pink's War.
It was among the earliest and keenest advocates of the doctrine of strategic bombing, informed by Britain's experience of German air attacks in the First World War. Starting in the early 1920s, strategic bombing saw significant technical and tactical development in the RAF, and ultimately became Britain's main offensive airpower strategy during the Second World War.
Second World War
The Royal Air Force underwent rapid expansion prior to and during the Second World War. Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed "Article XV squadrons" for service with its formations. Many individual personnel from these countries, and exiles from occupied Europe, also served with their squadrons. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in its formations, similarly, approximately a quarter of Bomber Command's personnel were Canadian. Additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine per cent of their personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres.
During the Battle of Britain in 1940, the organization defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German . In what is perhaps the most prolonged and complicated air campaign in history, the Battle of Britain contributed significantly to the delay and subsequent indefinite postponement of Operation Sea Lion, Hitler's plans for an invasion of the UK. In the House of Commons on 20 August, prompted by their ongoing efforts, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a speech to the nation, where he said "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few".
The largest effort during the war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. While their bombing of Germany began almost immediately upon the outbreak of war at first it was ineffectual; it was only later, particularly under the leadership of Air Chief Marshal Harris, that these attacks became increasingly devastating, from early 1943 onward, as new technology and greater numbers of superior aircraft became available. They adopted night-time area bombing on German cities such as Hamburg and Dresden. Night time area bombing constituted the great bulk of their bombing campaign, mainly due to Harris, but it also developed precision bombing techniques for specific operations, such as the infamous "Dambusters" raid by No. 617 Squadron,Paul Brickhill, The Dambusters or the Amiens prison raid known as Operation Jericho.
Cold War era
Following victory in the Second World War, they underwent significant re-organisation, as technological advances in air warfare saw the arrival of jet fighters and bombers. During the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken was the Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Plainfire. Between 26 June 1948 and the lifting of the Soviet blockade of the city on 12 May 1949, the RAF provided 17% of the total supplies delivered, using Avro Yorks, Douglas Dakotas flying to Gatow Airport and Short Sunderlands flying to Lake Havel. They saw its first post-war engagements in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War: during the withdrawal of the former Mandatory Palestine in May 1948 where British Supermarine Spitfire FR.18s shot down four Royal Egyptian Air Force Spitfire LF.9s after the REAF mistakenly attacked Ramat David airbase;Aloni 2001, p. 10. and during encounters with the Israeli Air Force which saw the loss of a single de Havilland Mosquito PR.34 in November 1948 and four Spitfire FR.18s and a single Hawker Tempest F.6 in January 1949.Aloni 2001, pp. 18, 22.
Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons, they were provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E. However, following the development of its own arsenal, the British Government elected on 16 February 1960 to share the country's nuclear deterrent between them and submarines of the Royal Navy, first deciding to concentrate solely on the air force's V bomber fleet. These were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs, later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile. Following the development of the Royal Navy's Polaris submarines, the strategic nuclear deterrent passed to the navy's submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, their strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one, using WE.177 gravity bombs. This tactical role was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by the Panavia Tornado GR1.Burnell, Brian. "Weapon detail and No. 15 Squadron data for 1984." nuclear-weapons.info. Retrieved 19 January 2011."Strategic Defence Review 1998: Full Report." Ministry of Defence, 1998, p. 24.
For much of the Cold War the primary role was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union, with many squadrons based in West Germany. The main bases were Brüggen, Gutersloh, Laarbruch and Wildenrath – the only air defence base. With the decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, and Far East Air Force was disbanded on 31 October 1971. Despite this, they fought in many battles in the Cold War period. Operations continued for the next 12 years until 1960 with aircraft flying out of Tengah and Butterworth. They played a minor role in the Korean War, with flying boats taking part. From 1953 to 1956 the Avro Lincoln squadrons carried out anti-Mau Mau operations in Kenya using its base at Eastleigh. The Suez Crisis in 1956 saw a large role, with aircraft operating from Akrotiri and Nicosia on Cyprus and Luqa and Hal Far on Malta as part of Operation Musketeer. They suffered its most recent loss to an enemy aircraft during the Suez Crisis, when an English Electric Canberra PR7 was shot down over Syria.
In 1957, they participated heavily during the Jebel Akhdar War in Oman, operating both de Havilland Venom and Avro Shackleton aircraft. They made 1,635 raids, dropping 1,094 tons and firing 900 rockets at the interior of Oman between July and December 1958, targeting insurgents, mountain top villages and water channels in a war that remained under low profile. The Konfrontasi against Indonesia in the early 1960s did see use of their aircraft, but due to a combination of deft diplomacy and selective ignoring of certain events by both sides, it never developed into a full-scale war. They played a large role in the Aden Emergency between 1963 and 1967. Hawker Hunter FGA.9s based at Khormaksar, Aden, were regularly called in by the British Army as close air support to carry out strikes on rebel positions.Ritchie 2011, p. 87. The Radfan Campaign (Operation Nutcracker) in early 1964 was successful in suppressing the revolt in Radfa, however it did nothing to end the insurgency with the British withdrawing from Aden in November 1967.Ritchie 2011, pp. 86–87, 89, 92.