UK Air Chief Hopes To Add Combat Squadron
LONDON — Having secured three extra combat squadrons a little more than a week ago in a strategic defense and security review (SDSR), Britain’s Air Force chief said that he has a plan to add a fourth unit to further boost air power.
“We were destined to be down to six [combat] squadrons by 2020," the Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford told an audience of senior military and industry executives at an Air Power Association dinner at the House of Commons on Thursday. "We knew that was too few ... and we fought for more. We got three squadrons, and I have a fourth in my pocket.”..........
“We are going to stay at nine [squadrons], and I have a plan to get to 10,” Pulford said.
A spokesman for the RAF later sought to play down the remarks, saying that no such plan existed. "SDSR confirmed that the UK will have nine combat air squadrons," said the spokesman. "There are no plans for a 10th squadron. CAS’ comments referred to how, over time, future efficiencies from within the RAF could be used to create an extra squadron.”.............
Industry executives at the dinner wondered where the RAF would get the money and the manpower from for an extra squadron. The additional two Typhoon squadrons already announced are being generated by making more efficient use of the existing fleet, rather than by buying new aircraft. That’s being enabled in large part by better exploitation of advanced simulation for training and mission rehearsal, allowing a greater number of pilots to be sustained at high readiness from broadly the same number of live-flying hours.................
SDSR generally was seen by analysts and others as a big win for the RAF, with improvements to combat mass, a significant increase in ISTAR resources and a decision to run the bulk of the C-130J Hercules fleet beyond its 2022 out-of-service date to 2030. Pulford said that getting to keep 14–
Js was like getting a “Christmas present.”..............
The chief of the air staff said that the decision to extend the out-of-service dates of many of the RAF’s key ISTAR assets had provided certainty where there had previously been uncertainty. SDSR extended the lives of the Sentinel battlefield-surveillance aircraft, the Shadow intelligence aircraft, Sentry E3 airborne early-warning and Rivet Joint signals-intelligence platforms.
New purchases include nine Boeing P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, more than 20 Protector UAVs to replace the 10 General Atomics Reapers now in service and an additional three Shadow aircraft — two new platforms and the conversion of a third King Air airframe already owned by the MoD..............