Telegraph - RAF bare bones article
Full article below. Much hype some truth. Whilst the RAF can contribute, can they sustain?
DT
By Ben Farmer, Defence Correspondent
6:00PM BST 25 Sep 2014
Air Chief Marshall Sir Michael Graydon says the RAF is at “rock bottom” after years of cuts and sustaining air strikes against Isil would be “quite a stretch”
Britain will struggle to mount a lengthy air campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq because its air force has been reduced to the “bare bones” by defence cuts, a former head of the RAF has warned.
Air Chief Marshall Sir Michael Graydon said the RAF was at “rock bottom” after years of cuts and sustaining air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters would be “quite a stretch”.
MPs are on Friday expected to back a Government motion authorising a bombing campaign on Isil targets in Iraq to try to help the Baghdad government beat back the militants who have seized large parts of northern Iraq.
RAF Tornados stationed at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus are poised to begin bombing as soon as the weekend.
Ministers have warned the campaign to defeat Isil will be a long haul that could take years.
Sir Michael, a former Chief of the Air Staff, said with fighters already committed to defending UK air space and operations in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and the Falklands, the RAF would be badly stretched to take on a new campaign.
He said: “The lack of combat air craft is a major weakness in our make up. This has been raised time and time again and basically ignored. We really are at rock bottom.”
The RAF is short of pilots and navigators, while the longer the campaign carried on, the more wear and tear would hit the reliability of the ageing Tornados, he said.
Sir Michael, vice president of the UK National Defence Association, said: “To sustain this operation is going to be quite a stretch.”
Britain currently has just seven combat-capable air squadrons, compared to 15 for the French air force.
Air Cdre Andrew Lambert said: “I think it’s doable, but we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. There’s nothing more there, so let’s hope Ukraine doesn’t bubble up into something nasty.
“I think ministers are just coming back to being briefed on this and realising how far they have taken it.
“Weapons stocks are parlous and when you chuck this all together, it’s a pretty poor position. We have too few air craft, too few pilots and too much tasking.”
British combat jets have been sent to the Baltic to police Nato air space this year and also to Nigeria to search for kidnapped school girls in Nigeria.
Six RAF Tornados have been stationed in Cyprus for the past six weeks and have been flying surveillance flights over northern Iraq.
The jets could begin dropping Paveway IV guided bombs and Brimstone missiles within hours of the Prime Minister giving orders.