RAF Shawbury

670 Squadron first formed as an RAF Glider Squadron in British India in Dec 1944. It was formed for South Eastern Asia Command during the Second World War. It was disbanded in Jul 1946. The Squadron reformed under the Army Air Corps (AAC) in 1989 at Middle Wallop as part of 7 Regiment AAC responsible for the Operational Training Phase (OTP) of the Army Pilots Course.

In Apr 2018, 670 Squadron was subsumed by the newly reformed 9 Regiment AAC to go on delivering flying training for the Defence Helicopter Flying School (DHFS) later to become 1 Flying Training School (1FTS) at RAF Shawbury under the new UK Military Flying Training System (UK MFTS).

The Squadron’s Motto, ‘In Silence We Strike’.

705 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) was created when 705 Flight was granted Squadron status in 1939, operating the Swordfish Torpedo Bomber from Battlecruisers.  It was disbanded in 1940 before a brief reformation in 1945 as a Torpedo Training Unit.

In 1947, the Squadron began its association with rotary aviation when it was re-commissioned to study the use of helicopters at sea with the first deck landing on a Royal Navy warship.  It began its association with flying training in the 1950s when it became responsible for training all Royal Navy helicopter pilots. 

In April 1997, the Squadron moved to RAF Shawbury as part of the Tri-Service Defence Helicopter Flying School (DHFS). In February 2020, The Defence Helicopter Flying School was rebadged to 1 Flying Training School and 705 Naval Air Squadron remains as one of Squadrons within the School.

No.1 Flying Training School (1 FTS) is the oldest flying training school in the world. Since forming in 1919, the school has been disbanded and reformed 6 times in its history. Most recently, the school reformed on 28 Feb 2020 at RAF Shawbury, rebadging the Defence Helicopter Flying School. 1 FTS delivers the Rotary Element of the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS), providing helicopter training for Pilots and Rearcrew from the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and some overseas countries. Basic and Advanced training is delivered from RAF Shawbury with the maritime and mountain flying element of the advanced course delivered from RAF Valley. Since 1 April 2018, the Rotary Wing element of the UKMFTS has been delivered via a contract with Ascent Flying Training, who sub-contract to Airbus Helicopters. Training is delivered on a modern fleet of Juno (H135) and Jupiter (H145) helicopters. This is supported by a state-of-the-art infrastructure, including the Duke of Cambridge Building which houses Flying Training Devices and the Ground School where the trainees learn many of their skills before getting airborne.  

CFS(H) Squadron trains the next generation of Qualified Helicopter Instructors (QHI) and Qualified Helicopter Crewman Instructors (QHCI) from the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force, and some overseas countries. 

CFS(H) Squadron runs 5 courses a year with approximately 12 pilots and 2 crewmen on each course. The pilots consist mostly of an even mixture of RAF, Royal Navy, Army and foreign Service Pilots.

The Defence College of Air and Space Operations (DCASO) is a worldwide centre of excellence on leading-edge battlespace management training and education. The college delivers all Phase 2 training for the 5 elements of the Air Operations Branch which includes Air Traffic Controllers, Weapons controllers, Identification Officers, Flight Operations personnel and Air and Space Operations Specialists. In addition, it delivers pre-deployment training to those about to deploy on operations as well as training selected personnel as instructors.

The college formed on 1 Jan 2019, bringing together the School of Aerospace Battle Management (SABM) and the School of Air Operations Control (SAOC). Following the relocation of SABM from RAF Boulmer in Summer 2019, the School now operates alongside the SAOC, with trainers and trainees working collaboratively.

The Battlespace Management Standards and Evaluation Team (BM STANEVAL) is established to implement the Battlespace Management Assurance System (BMAS).The primary task of the BM STANEVAL is to offer second party assurance (2PA) for all BM trained personnel and the team has a wide remit to inspect, examine, endorse and standardise across the whole spectrum of BM tasks.