Don't rain on my parade... The arrival of the F35 to the UK

‘Much vaunted ‘all weather capability aircraft grounded by the weather’ – a comment on the RAF F35 arrival in the UK? No, instead it was reports in the media last year after the arrival of the Israeli Air Forces first F35 aircraft into Israel was delayed due to bad weather in Italy (LINK HERE).

The media is awash today with various stories claiming that the RAF has somehow been left embarrassed owing to the fact that due to poor weather and sea state, it chose not to send the first RAF F35 detachment over to the UK on Tue 5 June. The papers are full of comments by an unknown former service person who sounds like they have loathed the RAF for many years, suggesting that somehow the Royal Navy would have done it better for ‘reasons’. This in turn is apparently embarrassing for the RAF and bad for the UK, and there is ill informed comment on the internet about the failure of the RAF to do its job.

What a bunch of utter codswallop.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

Military aircraft are not like long range civilian airliners, they are not really intended to fly across the Atlantic in one hop without refuelling. To launch a trail of military aircraft across the Atlantic will usually require in flight refuelling and the presence of diversion airfields in case of a problem. This in turn requires access to refuelling tankers and SAR capability.

What appears to have happened yesterday was that the weather was such that across the Atlantic, it was not possible to be 100% certain that the aircraft could cross and complete their refuelling as required, or that they would be able to land in a diversion airfield if absolutely necessary. Finally, the sea conditions were such that if someone had to ditch, it is not certain that the pilot would have survived in the water for long enough to be rescued.

This sort of decision is entirely appropriate for peacetime operations – for that is what this was. A routine movement of a force of aircraft across the Atlantic. It wasn’t a military operation, it wasn’t a propaganda move, it was a professionally executed movement of forces requiring a lot of people, aircraft and moving parts to deliver. The pathetic suggestions by some commentators that this reflects badly on the RAF are an insult to the enormous courage, bravery and dedication to duty shown by the men and women of the RAF.

There is a significant difference between conducting strike operations against an enemy, requiring you to launch in less than optimal conditions and deliver munitions, while refuelling in bad weather and doing a peacetime aircraft redeployment. Anyone who doubts the courage of the RAF to press on, regardless of risk, would do well to read ‘Vulcan 607’ about the weather on the first Black Buck raid, or more recently to read accounts of the Support Helicopter force in Afghanistan, where many aircrew were repeatedly decorated for astounding acts of courage and bravery for their flying in conditions where most would have feared to go.

The RAF has flown the Atlantic tens of thousands of times over the decades and will definitely have delayed departures to get the right set of weather conditions to ensure that it is safe to fly. This is entirely appropriate and sensible.  In wartime it makes sense to take risks, to push the limits and to do what has to be done to achieve the mission. In peacetime this is not the case – why should the RAF put the lives of multiple aircrew in both the F35 and the Voyager aircraft (noting that Air to Air refuelling is not a straightforward manoeuvre at the best of times, let alone in bad weather) just to fly home to Marham?

It would frankly be appalling to see pilots lives risked, and enormously expensive aircraft recklessly flown into the sea just to ‘prove’ a point that the RAF can fly in difficult weather. This sort of false machismo proves nothing and merely puts lives at risk for no good reason, except to appease the angry commentators on the internet who will feel better about themselves as a result of knowing the RAF flew on, prior to angrily typing about how outrageous it was that Whitehall bureaucrats willingly put our brave boys lives at risk…

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

Others have claimed that somehow this operation sends the wrong message to the Russians, that the UK should have treated it like a quasi-military operation and sent a message. Frankly Humphrey thinks this operation did send a clear message to Russia. What it showed was the UK can work as a Tier 1 partner with the US to jointly develop the most advanced military aircraft on the planet, then use its network of allies and friends to forward position tankers for air to air refuelling (negating the need for regular fuelling stops) to quickly reposition halfway round the world prior to preparing to embark the same jets on a strike carrier.

To an isolated, almost friendless nation like Russia, desperately trying to convince the world that its smattering of barely affordable technology demonstrators and a reckless disregard for acting like a civilised nation state doesn’t make it a pariah nation, the message is clear. The UK can project force across the globe at a time, and place, of its choosing.

This move sent the clear reminder too of the potency of the RAF’s strategic air transport capability. To be able to deploy two tankers to ensure refuelling could occur en-route, while also maintaining the regular drum beat of refuelling and cargo operations elsewhere is a great sign of the enormous capability offered by the Voyager force. Many other nations would have struggled to do this without depleting their AAR capability, or stopping tasks elsewhere. It is a timely reminder of the global strategic reach that the RAF has.

Today is a time for celebration- the F35 programme has been successfully delivering an astoundingly complex aircraft that will form the backbone of the UK’s maritime and land strike capability for decades to come. It marks the culmination of decades of work by the UK aerospace industry, civil servants and military staff and others to help bring this platform into service here in the UK. The arrival at RAF Marham is the start of the next phase of the journey, as the force looks to its exciting future, and the UK begins to return to fixed wing carrier operations.

The arrival of the F35 in the UK is the start of a new era for the RAF and Royal Navy – frankly it is far better to start by counting all the aircraft out from the US, and counting them all back in Marham a day late, than pushing on regardless and wasting lives and aircraft simply to appease the baying internet ‘instant expert’ mob who give the impression that they place imaginary internet prestige above the lives of RAF pilots. It must be hoped that an entirely sensible professional decision not to risk the force for no good reason does not become part of the legend of myths surrounding UK defence – facts, not fantasies matter here.