Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom’s aerial warfare force. The RAF describes its mission statement as “to provide an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes a decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission”. The RAF has 832 aircraft and 32,940 Active personnel.
Aircrafts
Combat aircraft, or “Warplanes”, are divided broadly into multi-role, fighters, bombers, attackers, and electronic warfare support.
160 Eurofighter Typhoon (multirole)
18 F-35B Lightning II (multirole)
138 F-35Bs planned – Jointly operated with Fleet Air Arm
An airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system is an airborne radar picket system designed to detect aircraft, ships and vehicles at long ranges and perform command and control of the battlespace in an air engagement by directing fighter and attack aircraft strikes. AEW&C units are also used to carry out surveillance.
Military transport aircraft or military cargo aircraft are used to airlift troops, weapons and other military equipment to support military operations. Transport aircraft can be used for both strategic and tactical missions, and are often diverted to civil emergency relief missions.
8 C-17A Globemaster III (strategic transport)
20 A400M (tactical transport)
2 in order
14 C-130J Super Hercules (tactical transport)
2 Boeing 737 BBJ (VIP)
2 Dassault Falcon 7X (VIP)
A maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), also known as a patrol aircraft, maritime reconnaissance aircraft, is a fixed-wing aircraft designed to operate for long durations over water in maritime patrol roles — in particular anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-ship warfare (AShW), and search and rescue (SAR).
Aerial refueling is the process of transferring aviation fuel from one military aircraft (the tanker) to another (the receiver) during flight. The two main refueling systems are probe-and-drogue, which is simpler to adapt to existing aircraft.
A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews.
Helicopters
UAV
Armament
An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft
An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land.
A general-purpose bomb is an air-dropped bomb intended as a compromise between blast damage, penetration, and fragmentation in explosive effect. They are designed to be effective against enemy troops, vehicles, and buildings.
