RAF Regiment

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The Royal Air Force Regiment is a specialist corps within the Royal Air Force, responsible for capturing and defending airfields and associated installations. Effectively, its members are the RAF's soldiers. Members of the Regiment are known within the RAF as 'Rock Apes' or 'Rocks' and the corps itself is simply known as 'The Regiment'. In the past the nickname 'Rock Ape' has been attributed to their traditional role guarding areas of Gibraltar, but this is not so. The term came into use after an accident in the Western Aden Protectorate in November 1952. Two Regiment Officers serving with the APL at Dhala decided to amuse themselves by going out to shoot some of the baboons (locally referred to as rock apes). The Officers drew rifles and split up to hunt the apes yet in the semi-darkness one of the Officers fired at a moving object in the distance. When he reached the target he discovered he had shot the other Officer. After emergency treatment Flight Lieutenant Mason survived to return to service a few months later. When asked why he had fired at his friend by a board of inquest the Officer replied that his target had 'looked just like a rock ape' in the half light. The remark soon reverberated around the RAF and it was not long before the term was in general use.

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Organisation and current role

The RAF Regiment comes under command of 2 Group, Strike Command. Its members are organised into ten regular squadrons. There are four Ground-Based Air Defence squadrons. These are responsible for defending airfields and other high value assets against air attack and are equipped with Rapier vehicle-portable surface-to-air missiles. The remainder of the regiment consists of nine Field squadrons (including three RAuxAF squadrons), responsible for defending against ground attack. Whilst apparently similar to British Army infantry, they are trained, equipped and manned to deal with the requirements of protecting high value air assets during operations across the spectrum of conflict. They are particularly equipped with a range of direct and indirect fire systems and specialist surveillance and night vision equipment. Unlike the infantry, each member of a field squadron is required to master a wide range of skills that include covert observation and target acquisition, and dismounted close combat. The unique nature of air operations is such that RAF Regiment personnel must have a specific understanding of its requirements in order to ensure that the tactics, techniques and procedures employed do not disrupt those operations. Additionally, because air bases are fixed and supporting elements are unable to redeploy quickly, field squadrons must engage an attacking adeversary at the earliest opportunity to prevent air operations from being disrupted. This requires RAF Regiment personnel to operate in small groups and to be trained and prepared to engage the adversary in combat frequently without the level of support that would be commonplace on an infantry battlegroup.

Field Squadrons employ a tactic of aggressive defence, seeking to dominate the wider area around the station by mounting observation posts and employing patrols to locate and neutralize the enemy before it can come within striking distance. Field Squadrons are divided into Flights, which are larger than an army platoon. Each squadron contains several Rifle Flights, whose task is to engage and destroy the enemy at close range, and a Support Weapons Flight, which provides fire support to the Rifle Flights by using machine guns, mortars, portable anti-tank weapons, and snipers.

The Ground-Based Air Defence Squadrons are 108 strong and the field squadrons are 166 strong (increasing soon to 171 strong) making them considerably larger than an infantry company in the army. All RAF Regiment personnel are male, in line with the British Government policy that women cannot serve in front line close-combat units. There are approximately 2,000 regular airmen (i.e. Other Ranks), 300 regular officers, and 500 reservists. Since 1990, the RAF Regiment has taken part in operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, Falkland Islands, Iraq, Kosovo, Kuwait, Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone. Furthermore, RAF Regiment officers have been seconded as United Nations Monitoring Officers in support of UN peace-keeping mission in places such as Iraq, Cambodia and Republic of Georgia. RAF Regiment units have frequently been tasked to form part of Army and other formations to make use of their specialist skills and 51 Squadron RAF Regiment was the first British conventional ground combat unit into Iraq in 2003 when it was working with a US Marines Expeditionary Unit.

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Specialist squadrons and units

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  • II Squadron is a parachute-trained Field Squadron which is capable of inserting by parachute and securing forward airfields, a capability that was utilized during the Sierra Leone operation of 2000.
  • 63 Squadron, known as the Queen's Colour Squadron, is a Field Squadron which represents the RAF at high profile ceremonial occasions (including mounting the Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace), and is also responsible for guarding the Queen's Colour of the Royal Air Force. It was formerly purely a ceremonial squadron, the Queen's Colour Squadron (with no number), with no other duties, but it has now become a fully fledged field squadron.
  • 27 Squadron is a specialist unit that forms half of the Joint CBRN Regiment together with 1st Royal Tank Regiment.
  • In addition, the Regiment has a ground extraction unit attached to No. 28 Squadron RAF, which provides Combat Search and Rescue teams to recover isolated RAF personnel and equipment.
  • The RAF Regiment provides training teams for all RAF stations, which are responsible for training station personnel in Force Protection and operational deployment skills.
  • The Regiment is also responsible for the Defence CBRN Centre at Winterborne Gunner which trains personnel from all 3 services and the civilian police in CBRN defence skills. It also provides CBRN specialist advice and support to other organisations.
  • RAF Regiment personnel man a number of Tactical Air Control Parties, including 3 in the Army's 16 Air Assault Brigade. These parties contain RAF Regiment Forward Air Controllers who are responsible for directing fire support from fast jet attack aircraft in support of ground combat forces.
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History

The genesis of the RAF Regiment was with the creation of No 1 Armoured Car Company RAF in 1921 for operations in Iraq, followed shortly afterwards by Nos II and 3 companies. These were equipped with Rolls Royce Armoured Cars and were highly successful in ground combat operations throughout the Middle East in the 1920s and 30s. The RAF Regiment came into existence, in name, on 1 February 1942. From the start it had both field squadrons and light anti-aircraft squadrons, the latter originally armed with Hispano and Bofors guns. Its role was originally purely defensive, but later in the war it took on offensive tasks such as capturing enemy airfields and frequently worked as line infantry in all theatres of war. Several parachute squadrons were formed to assist in the capture of airfields and the recovery of downed aircrew, and No II Squadron retains this capability. 284 Field Squadron was the first RAF unit to arrive in West Berlin in 1945, to secure RAF Gatow.

The Regiment has a museum at RAF Honington near Bury St Edmunds. The RAF Regiment frequently mounts the King's Guard/Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace, St James's Palace, Windsor Castle and the Tower of London, with the first occasion being on 1 April 1943.

During World War II, the RAF Regiment grew to a force of 66,000 men in 280 Squadrons of 185 men each (each squadron including five officers). Each squadron consisted of a Headquarters Flight, three Rifle Flights, an Air-Defence Flight, and an Armoured-Car Flight. The flights were grouped together into Wings as needed. It also operated six Armoured Car Squadrons to provide an area response capability to several RAF stations. Light Armoured Squadrons, equipped with FV101 Scorpion and FV107 Scimitar light tanks, continued to be operated into the 1980s.

Formerly the RAF's firefighters were also members of the RAF Regiment, although they are now independent of it.

Further information on the history of the RAF Regiment:

'Through Adversity' by Kingsley M Oliver

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Recent news

On 12 July 2004, it was announced by Geoff Hoon that the RAF Regiment will relinquish the Ground-Based Air Defence role as the threat from air attack had dimished. This role will now only be carried out by the Royal Artillery, and the four RAF Regiment squadrons will be disbanded by 1 April 2008. However, as part of the same re-organisation, it was announced that the RAF Regiment would make up part of the new Ranger unit, designed to support the Special Forces. It is estimated that the RAF Regiment will supply approximately 100 members of this unit. In addition, a large number of personnel from the disbanding squadrons will be employed on other specialist tasks.

The four squadrons to be disbanded are:

  • 15 Squadron (March 2008)
  • 16 Squadron (March 2007)
  • 26 Squadron (March 2008)
  • 37 Squadron (March 2006)

As a result of these deletions, No 3 Squadron and No 63 (QCS) Squadron will each receive an additional 40 personnel, in order to match their operational capabilities with the four other field squadrons. In addition, No 1 Squadron is to be moved from RAF St Mawgan to RAF Honington, which will result in No 2625 Squadron, RAuxAF Regt also being disbanded.

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Current RAF Regiment units

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See also

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