Six RAF Tornados will lead the blitz
MILITArY chiefs warned Britain would struggle to mount a lengthy air campaign against Islamic State because its air force has been reduced to the ‘bare bones’ by defence cuts.
Former head of the rAF Air Chief Marshall Sir Michael Graydon said the rAF was at rock bottom after years of cuts.
Six rAF Tornados will spearhead Britain’s operations against Islamic State over Iraq with a blitz on carefully chosen targets that is expected to last for many months.
But Sir Michael, a former Chief of the Air Staff, pointed out that the rAF was already committed to defending UK air space as well as operations in Afghanistan, Nigeria, and the Falklands.
‘The lack of combat aircraft is a major weakness,’ he said. ‘This has been raised time and time again and basically ignored. We really are at rock bottom. To sustain this operation is going to be quite a stretch.’
Air Commodore Andrew Lambert added: ‘I think it’s do-able, but we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel, so let’s hope Ukraine doesn’t bubble up into something nasty.’
Six rAF Tornados have been stationed in Cyprus for the past six weeks and have been flying surveillance flights over northern Iraq. They could begin dropping bombs and missiles within hours of the Prime Minister giving orders.
Their pilots are already familiar with the way IS moves and have a number of potential fixed targets such as command and control bunkers and barracks.
Operating from the giant rAF base Akrotiri in Cyprus, the two- seater fighter bombers will be armed with Paveway 500lb, 1,000lb and 2,00lb bombs to target small compounds, Storm Shadow bunker busters and supersonic Brimstone missiles that can hit moving targets such as enemy fighters in cars or on motorbikes.
Further Tornados are on standby to be moved to the region, while an Astute-class royal Navy submarine carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles is already in place and is likely to be ‘operational’ in the first waves of attacks. Typhoon jets are likely to be moved to the region in the New Year.
Several hundred UK Special Forces, reconnaissance troops and signals support have spent weeks monitoring IS and are likely to guide bombs on to targets in some attacks. They will also work with four rAF Chinooks taking on the search and rescue role should any planes be shot down.
It is unclear what surface-to-air missiles IS has, or if it has any of the sophisticated Soviet radar that may have been captured from the Syrians but the SAS and SBS will be aiming to ‘nullify’ any potential threat.
While the air operation begins Special Forces and MI6 will continue the operation alongside the US and Iraqi intelligence to identify where British hostages Alan Henning, 47 and John Cantlie, 43, are being held.