Category Archives: Military

Arts, Britain, History, Military, Photography

RAF Centenary historic fly-past

RAF CENTENARY

RAF personnel within the grounds of Buckingham Palace form up to present the ‘RAF100’ sign today.

Members of the Royal Air Force parade down The Mall, London, after a service at Westminster Abbey, to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force.

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Aircraft from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight including the Spitfire, Lancaster (left) and Hurricane (top right and bottom) also flew as part of the line-up, as are training aircraft including the Prefect, Tucano and Hawk.

The RAF’s Puma unit (shown left) and the Chinook (right) will featured in today’s fly-past. Both units are used mainly for transportation, resupply and evacuation.

The Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster and Dakota were all part of the fly-past of part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

The moment that a squadron of Typhoon fighter jets form a 100 formation above The Mall.

The RAF’s new cutting-edge stealth fighter F-35 Lightning jets also featured, making their first ever public appearance.

The Queen was joined by her son Prince Charles as she presented a new Queen’s Colour to the RAF to mark its centenary.

The Red Arrows perform a fly past over the Mall and Buckingham Palace to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force in front of thousands of spectators.

Red Arrows fly past the Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square, trailing red white and blue smoke, to conclude the RAF100 fly-past.

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The Queen and others, including the Fab Four of Harry, Meghan, William and Kate, watched on from the royal balcony as the action unfolded above Buckingham Palace.

. See also Book Review: Birth of the RAF (& Gallery)

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Afghanistan, Britain, Defence, Government, Military

The betrayal of Afghan interpreters

DEFENCE

British soldiers were aided by Afghan interpreters who were used to help provide intelligence on the activities of the Taliban. But despite the lives of many interpreters’ being at risk from continued reprisal attacks, the British Government has refused to help relocate many to Britain under the intimidation scheme. The defence select committee in Britain has concluded an inquiry into the treatment of Afghan interpreters saying they were dismally failed.

AN inquiry by the defence select committee says ministers have “dismally failed” to protect loyal Afghan interpreters who served alongside British troops from the Taliban. It concludes by stating that “dangerously exposed” interpreters should be given a new life in the UK.

MPs on the committee said the Ministry of Defence’s “intimidation scheme”, under which translators must prove a threat to their life before they are allowed into Britain, had failed to bring a single one to safety in this country.

The explosive report states that claims by the MoD that no interpreters have faced threats warranting their relocation to the UK are “totally implausible”.

It draws on evidence of the threats facing interpreters, and the report says: “We have a duty of care to those who risked everything to help our armed forces in Afghanistan.”

Dr Julian Lewis, chairman of the cross-party committee, said: “How we treat our former interpreters and local employees… will send a message to the people we would want to employ in future military campaigns about whether we can be trusted to protect them.”

The findings will pile further pressure on Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and Home Secretary Sajid Javid to overhaul current policy on Afghan interpreters. The MoD has said it would now review the report.

There are two schemes under which interpreters who served alongside British troops can be given sanctuary in the UK. The “relocation scheme” only allows interpreters into the UK if they were serving on an arbitrary date in December 2012 and served at least 12 months in Helmand province.

But the report says this scheme had been “generous” in allowing interpreters who lost their jobs when UK forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan into Britain.

This generosity had, however, contrasted starkly with the “total failure to offer similar sanctuary to interpreters” under the intimidation scheme, it says.

This failure comes despite Afghan interpreters and their families having been shot at, threatened and even executed after being branded “spies and infidels” by the Taliban.

The report says ministers must allow interpreters who face “serious and verifiable threats” to come to Britain.

Case-in-point:

AN Afghan translator credited with helping save the lives of dozens of British soldiers trapped for nearly two months by the Taliban has said that their fighters have been trying to hunt him down.

Fardin, 37, said that twice in the past ten days a suspected Taliban fighter had been in his home neighbourhood of the Afghan capital Kabul asking neighbours and shopkeepers where he lives with his family.

“I am terrified,” he said. “My wife is crying constantly. They know what I look like, they know what I did for the British and they want revenge.”

Fardin, who still works with British forces in Kabul, was one of three Afghan interpreters who were the “eyes and ears” of 88 soldiers surrounded by 500 Taliban at the outpost of Musa Qala in Helmand for 56 days.

Despite the fact he has worked with the British for more than a decade, he was told he does not qualify for sanctuary in the UK because he did not spend a full year on the front line.

 

THE excoriating report by the all-party defence select committee, which finds not a single Afghan interpreter has been given sanctuary in the UK – under a scheme to rescue those at risk from Taliban reprisals – is devastating in its conclusions. The inquiry found that ministers have “dismally failed” to protect loyal Afghan interpreters who served with our troops.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson must act with all speed to honour our debt to these brave men – before more pay for their service to Britain with their lives.

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Britain, France, Military, Syria, United States

Debrief: Syrian strikes on Assad’s chemical storage units

SYRIA

BRITISH military commanders were so concerned about Russian retaliation during the missile strikes on Syria that two RAF fighter jets were kept back at high readiness to guard the airbase in Cyprus.

As RAF Tornado GR4s flew to help launch cruise missiles against the Assad regime, two Typhoon fighters stayed behind, poised on the runway at the base in Akrotiri.

. See RAF Tornados to be withdrawn in 2019

British commanders feared Moscow could (and it remains possible) launch an immediate act of revenge and so kept the Typhoon jets at high readiness to scramble and shoot down any incoming missiles.

The Pentagon included the two jets in a list of assets that took part in the assault under the cover of darkness last Saturday, even though they remained at the British base.

The military operation unfolded early, with British, US and French forces co-ordinating extremely precise strikes on Assad’s chemical stockpiles.

At about 2am UK time, RAF warplanes helped wipe out a chemical weapons storage plant in just 120 seconds without even entering Syrian airspace.

Four British Tornado jets fired a total of eight Storm Shadow cruise missiles, each worth £750,000 at the Him Shinshar chemical weapons storage facility, 15 miles west of Homs. It was struck by a further 14 missiles fired by the French and the US and razed to the ground.

The RAF Tornados were protected by a further two Typhoon fighter jets that flew in escort to an area north of Cyprus designated as a ‘firing box’.

A total of three suspected chemical weapons facilities were hit by 105 missiles fired from warplanes and jets from the three allies.

The other facilities have been confirmed as the Barzah research and development centre in greater Damascus, which was hit by 76 US missiles, and the chemical weapons bunker facility at Him Shinshar – four miles from the storage facility – which was hit by seven missiles fired from French Mirage fighter jets. Rafale fighters from France were also involved in the operation.

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RAF Tornado GR4s from Akrotiri in Cyprus launched Storm Shadow missiles at targets in Syria that has set back Assad’s chemical weapons stockpiles and facilities by many years.

The mission was set in motion at 10:30pm last Friday in a telephone call between Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and his counterparts in Paris and Washington. The Prime Minister was then informed that the mission would soon be under way.

At 1am four Tornado jets and two Typhoon jets took off from RAF Akrotiri. They returned to base safely and landed at about 2:15am. Russia did not use its missile defence system to fire back, despite claims from the Kremlin it had shot down weapons in response.

It can also be confirmed that Syria fired 40 surface-to-air missiles but none of them hit the incoming missiles and most of them were fired after the last Syrian target was already destroyed.

In a Cabinet meeting held last Thursday, the Defence Secretary talked through the procedure and the efforts made into minimising the risk of civilian casualties and protecting troops.

Theresa May travelled to Chequers on Friday, where at about 11pm she filmed a video message announcing she had approved the mission. The RAF was then duty bound to act.

Mrs May’s video message was broadcast at 2:10am on Saturday, just after she received a call confirming RAF jets were back on the ground and safe.

Images seen showed the tense final preparations at Akrotiri before the operation was launched. One showed a Flight Lieutenant carrying a pistol holder and inspecting a missile attached to the wing of the Tornados.

Each GR4 was flown by a two-man crew drawn from the RAF’s 31 Squadron, known as the Gold Stars. These airmen form part of 903 Expeditionary Air Wing based at Akrotiri. Crews have been conducting air strikes on Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2015. All eight British missiles found their targets.

Early indications suggest that President Assad’s chemical weapons stockpiles and facilities have been set back many years. The target choices have been described as being ‘very methodical’.

 

THE USE of an Astute-class submarine armed with Tomahawk missiles was ruled out in the hours leading up to the strike. Despite this, Russia was duped into launching a naval operation to find a British attack submarine that was excluded from the mission.

It was decided that the Storm Shadow cruise missiles on the RAF Tornado jets were the best assets available.

However, intelligence suggests that one kilo-class Russian hunterkiller left its position at Tartus in Syria to find the British submarine. Two Russian frigates and an anti-submarine aircraft were thought to have also been pointlessly searching for it.

The final plans drawn up for the strikes did not include a UK submarine. The Russians were simply outsmarted.

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