The Royal Air Force (RAF) reported that four Eurofighter Typhoon fighters from 11 (F) Squadron, at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, England, were instructed without prior notice to move to MoD Boscombe Down, also in Wiltshire. In England, as part of Exercise Agile Pirates (Practice agile hackers).
They are tasked with being ready, without delay, to activate a Rapid Response Alert, which works to respond to potential air threats in or near UK airspace. The aim was to test the RAF’s ability to rapidly deploy and operate assets vital to the UK’s defence.
The Typhoons were in reinforced aircraft shelters and took off minutes after an urgent call from Tactical Air Command and Control, known as Tac Air C2.
Later in the exercise, they were joined by two F-35B Lightning aircraft, with the fifth generation fighters also taking the opportunity to test their operability at an unfamiliar air base.
The exercise forms part of the RAF’s goal of conducting Agile Combat Employment (ACE-) Agile combat recruitment). It is an approach to operations that requires RAF personnel and assets to be flexible and agile, operating in rigid positions with minimal support, constantly moving and changing positions to maintain the initiative and overcome any action by the adversary, both in the UK and abroad. , along with partners from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO) and the Joint Expeditionary Force (Joint Expeditionary Force).
“The whole series of Agile Pirate exercises are springboards for the RAF to get better at implementing Agile Combat Employment. This exercise has shown that we can take our Rapid Response Warning System across the UK, and future exercises will test other vital capabilities focused on defending United kingdom.”Air Marshal Harvey Smith, Commander of Air and Space, explained.
Support teams from multiple bases provided operations, engineering, logistics, communications, security and service for the deployment of the Typhoon aircraft. They also did not receive any advance notice. An Airbus A400M Atlas transport aircraft delivered a large quantity of essential equipment to Boscombe Down within hours of activation and a day after the start of deployment.
“Moving quickly presents its own challenges, and we are forcing certain assumptions to move faster. Agile combat employment will change our current mindset and the way we work, and I believe in many ways it will bring out the best in our people, ready to deploy in a shorter time frame, and engage in Newer activities and working without the typical support structures from the main operating base My experience in this Agile Pirate 10 exercise is that participants thrive at this level of responsibility.Wing Commander Paul Hanson, detachment commander.
Specialists from RAF 19 Squadron at Bulmer fanned out to radar sites across the UK to provide a complete picture of the situation, called a Recognized Aerial Picture, and take control of scrambled aircraft to intercept simulated threats. They achieved numerous successful intercepts of target aircraft and, with it, the largest deployment of Tac Air C2 assets in decades, demonstrated the RAF’s ability to rapidly deploy and operate in extreme conditions.
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