New Structure

It is natural to associate the RAF with the types it flies. According to Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth, as of 31 March 2008, it will have an inventory of 853 aircraft, the number of front line types at this point will consist of 137 Panavia tornado GR4s, 78 BAe Harriers, 68 Tornado F3s and 49 Eurofighter Typhoons.

However, without the multitude of trained personnel to fly and maintain them, and the enablers and support staff who make operations possible, even the most modern aircraft would be ineffective. By April 2008, the RAF will have a projected trained strength of 41,440.

Recalling that in 1990, at the end of the ‘Cold War’, the Service had approximately 91,000 personnel, it is clear that it has undergone considerable down-sizing. Operations across the world have increased the tempo of overseas deployments, forcing the RAF to do ever more.

In the last year, the RAF has also undergone significant changes to its structure. On 1 April 2007, Strike Command and Personnel and Training Command were replaced by a unified Air Command, led by the current Commander-in-Chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Clive Loader. Air Command has three subordinate groups. All the fast combat jets are assigned to 1 Group, while combat support assets belong to 2 Group. The third is 22 (Training) Group, under which all of the RAF’s training activities are congregated.

At the same time as the unified command structure was created, nine numbered Expeditionary Air Wings (EAW) stood up at a similar number of main operational bases, to which most of the personnel not directly assigned to flying or other recognised units were grouped. The EAWs were created to provide readily identifiable structures, improving the ability to deploy discrete units of agile, scalable, interoperable and capable air power as a whole, functioning unit. EAWs provide logistical and support personnel with a recognisable unit to belong to.

Around 26% of the RAF’s assets and 7% of its personnel are currently deployed overseas. In addition to the nine UK-based EAWs, five more, to which personnel based overseas are assigned, already existed under the Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood, Gtr London. the overseas EAWs mirror the commitments of the British military in 2008, primarily Operation Telic in Iraq, Operation Herrick in Afghanistan and the need to garrison the Falkland Islands. In all three cases, the RAF has deployed aircraft from the UK, either in numbered flights or on temporary duty (TDY), as well as non-flying units.

The overseas EAWs are located at the large US-controlled Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar; at RAFO seeb-Muscat in Oman; Basra in Iraq and Kandahar International Airport in Afghanistan. These four are under the control of the Air Commodore who commands 83 Expeditionary Air Group Headquarters, which was established on 1 April 2006, to replace the UK Air Component Headquarters (ACHQ). He acts as the RAF’s senior officer in the Middle East. Command of the five overseas EAWs is rotated between the station commanders of the bases with EAWs in the UK.