The Royal Air Force's Deputy Commander of Operations Air Marshal Bagwell reflects on the RAF contribution to the UK's fight against the terrorist group Daesh.
RAF Deputy Commander of Operations, Air Marshal Greg Bagwell
The Royal Air Force has now been engaged on Operation SHADER over Iraq and Syria for nearly 18 months. If you recall, the operation began in early August 2014 with a need to deliver humanitarian aid to Mount Sinjar, but, as the Campaign has evolved, it has now become a very intense counter-insurgency operation on a much larger scale - our current operating area is approximately 580,000 km2 (which, for simple comparison, is more than twice the size of the UK). Moreover, from an RAF perspective, this Operation is the most complex we have been engaged in for over a decade in terms of scale and scope. The recent Parliamentary vote on extending strike operations into Syria, and the headlines that accompanied it, brought the Campaign to significant public attention.
The RAF Hercules C-130J delivering UK Aid into Iraq where the American Military were on hand to unload the Aircraft.
When we surged our contribution after the “Yes” vote it signalled the commitment of every operational fixed wing aircraft type in the RAF’s inventory to the Operation. Whilst this has been achieved without impacting on other current operational tasks, this is unprecedented in modern times and its safe and effective delivery is testament to the skill and fortitude of our people, and everyone in Defence who supports them. The surge heralded a doubling of our strike capability, which included the arrival of the Typhoon in the air-to-ground role, and this was the first time that we had deployed the more modern version of the Typhoon (Tranche 2) aircraft with the more potent air-to-ground capability provided by the Paveway 4 precision weapon.
RAF Typhoon
The fact that we were able to deploy Typhoon and employ Tornado in Syria within hours of the vote was testament to the entire team’s flexibility and readiness. Of course, this surge joined the already well-established strike and reconnaissance effort provided by our intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) force of Sentinel, Sentry, Airseeker and Reaper and the strike capability provided by Tornado and Reaper; with everything being kept airborne by Voyager air refuelling and C-17, C-130 and A400M logistic support.
A Royal Air Force Voyager aircraft refuelling a Tornado GR4.
The period since the surge and change in operating permissions has been extremely busy. There have been a number of operational gains on the ground in both the North of Iraq and Syria and the recapture of Ramadi to the West of Baghdad was a notable success in the last few weeks. RAF personnel and aircraft have been in the thick of the action to bring these successes, and the experience and capability that we bring to the fight make us a very important and valued member of the Coalition.
But this Campaign is one that will take time; we have seen on the news how Daesh use the urban environment and the population living within it as cover, and this requires extreme patience and precision in support of local forces to slowly recapture ground. But we are seeing strong signs of progress in other parts of the region as well as we begin to erode Daesh’s influence and capability. Importantly, friendly forces on the ground have the confidence and commitment to advance thanks to the precision, potency and responsiveness of their air support.
Much has been made of certain RAF weapons, such as the superb Brimstone missile, and the balance of effort between operations in Syria and Iraq. Also, operations in Syria itself are complicated, but there are mechanisms in place that make this as safe as possible. We are able to assign effort to tackling Daesh forces in Syria and to slowly remove their command and control, support network and revenue streams – such as oil production and distribution. However, our operations have been largely in support of ground operations, which are predominantly in Iraq, and so the situation on the ground there dictates the pace and tempo of the entire operation. It is absolutely correct to say that gains on the ground are the key to military success, but it is equally true to say that military success is worthless without political and diplomatic success, and, perhaps even more importantly, we need to counter the twisted ideology of Daesh to defeat it entirely – and here the battle ground is social media and people’s minds rather than the airspace or terrain of Iraq or Syria.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVN0SbZBXBE
My role and that of RAF Air Command is simply to force generate the air forces to sustain our contribution. Regrettably, it is often the aircraft and weapon systems that make the headlines, but it is our people who are the real key to our success. Overwhelmingly therefore, the credit for such a successful operation to date goes to all the personnel involved on our stations, wings and squadrons, both deployed and at home. That includes the sterling efforts of all at RAF Akrotiri who are delivering incredible levels of support, and all of those in Defence whose contribution at home and aboard support us. I would like to use this opportunity to publically acknowledge, thank and congratulate every one of them on a magnificent performance across the board. We have a long way to go before the operation concludes, but we should be very proud of our contribution, which is making a real difference despite what you hear from those who choose to value quantity over quality. Airpower is our major advantage in this conflict and the RAF is a very significant part of its successful delivery.
