The Battle of Britain and the RAF today

The Battle of Britain acts as a touchstone for today’s RAF. The courage and self-sacrifice of our forebears serves as a continuing inspiration to our people, and also acts as a constant reminder that the RAF’s foremost duty remains the control of the air. The threat to the UK may have changed in character, and the ongoing control of the air mission in Afghanistan takes a very different form from the air battles over Kent and Sussex 70 years ago, but the objective remains the same: to secure the free use of the air for ourselves and our allies and to deny it to our adversaries.

The Legacy of 1940

Today’s Royal Air Force (RAF) is very different to the force that won the Battle of Britain, but its spirit, dedication and ethos remain much the same; moreover, its central purpose has not altered over the intervening 70 years. The aerial threat to the United Kingdom in 2010 may be less tangible than the menace of Hitler’s Luftwaffe, but - as the events of 9/11 proved - it is still very real, and the consequences of a successful terrorist attack would be severe. This is why - just as in the ‘Spitfire Summer’ of 1940 - the RAF’s first duty is to control the air, not only at home, to safeguard the skies above the UK, but also on expeditionary operations abroad, to guarantee the freedom of action of friendly air, land and naval forces.

This fundamental requirement was the reason why the RAF was originally created in 1918, after an independent commission into German Zeppelin and bomber raids found that the inadequacy of British defences was the result of air capabilities being provided through separate (and ancillary) elements of the Army and the Navy. Instead, the Smuts’ Report recommended that a single, dedicated entity was necessary to focus on the delivery of air power as its sole duty.

The logic remains the same today; control of the air is just too important to be left to other organisations as a secondary task. The far-sighted decision to form an independent air force meant that the necessary expertise and capability was available to achieve victory in the Battle of Britain twenty years later, ensuring the immediate survival of the nation and demonstrably altering the course of history, and was also the first step in establishing the RAF’s proud heritage as the world’s longest established air force, resulting in an unparalleled record of experience and success in every sort of military operation across the globe, right through to the key role currently being played in support of the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

The Battle of Britain was a contest for control of the air, and this remains a fundamental prerequisite for any putative military endeavour in the twenty-first century: quite simply, it enables all other activities. For example, it would be impossible to even deploy a fighting force - in its vulnerable transport ships, aircraft and land vehicles - to a crisis zone without control of the air, let alone move it freely around a theatre of operations after arrival. However, the importance of control of the air is equally clear to the enemies of the West, and they will contest it with every means at their disposal: this may result in air battles between fighter aircraft (such as in the early stages of the Gulf War in 1991), engagements between aircraft and surface-based missiles and anti-aircraft guns, or insurgent attacks on air bases and essential ground infrastructure.

Because of its investment in first-class training and capable equipment, the RAF has been successful in ensuring that British forces have not suffered any casualties from enemy air attack since the Falklands War in 1982, where the images of Royal Fleet Auxiliary Sir Galahad burning at Bluff Cove remain as the starkest possible illustration of what happens when control of the air is lost. However, the RAF has had to fight hard for control of the air in all of its campaigns since the Falklands: in the Gulf War in 1991, against Iraqi fighter aircraft and a dense network of missile and gun defences; against the highly effective Serbian air defence system during the Kosovo War in 1999, when more than 2,000 missiles were fired at NATO aircraft; and again, against the Iraqi air defence system as recently as 2003, when the Baghdad missile engagement zone remained an active threat until the final fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

These examples demonstrate that control of the air can never be assumed or taken for granted, and without it, the success of any military operation will be compromised. This is why combat aircraft such as the Typhoon are necessary to provide a competitive, multi-role capability, not least in deterring potential adversaries in a global environment where state-of-the-art Russian and Chinese fighter aircraft and surface-to-air missiles are freely available and widely exported, often to unstable or problematic states.

Even when our adversaries lack a conventional air force, they will still contest our ability to control the air: an RAF Hercules transport aircraft was downed by ground-fire in Iraq in 2005, and helicopters in Afghanistan are often engaged by insurgents with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Additionally, aircraft have been attacked on the ground by rockets and mortar fire, which is why the specialist force protection provided by the RAF Regiment, familiar with air operations and flight profiles, is necessary to secure operating bases and landing areas.

In this way, today’s RAF Regiment gunners play as significant a part in the current battle for control of the air as the RAF’s Spitfire and Hurricane pilots did in 1940.

The wide availability of man-portable anti-aircraft missiles increases the threat and requires continuing investment in suitable defensive aids and counter-measures, particularly for slower transport aircraft and helicopters. The acquisition by the Taliban of Stinger missiles during the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan in the eighties largely negated the power of the Soviet Air Force and was a major factor in the Kremlin’s decision to abandon the campaign, illustrating both the need to invest in control of the air capabilities and the consequences of failing to do so.

At present, the most significant air threat to the United Kingdom itself is a terrorist attack, with a hijacked airliner being used as a suicide bomb. Consequently, a force of Tornado and Typhoon fighters is held at Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) all year round, day and night, with a remit to ‘scramble’ within a few minutes to intercept any aircraft entering or flying around NATO-monitored airspace around the UK without proper authorisation. The public might be surprised to know that in 2009, this happened more than once a month, on some occasions to check out airliners that were not complying with proper procedures or were failing to communicate, but also to intercept Russian patrol aircraft.

Meeting the QRA requirement is a demanding and largely unsung task, but as the attack on the World Trade Centre demonstrated, there is absolutely no margin for error. It involves the highest levels of professionalism and close teamwork, because radar stations, air traffic agencies, tanker aircraft and engineering support are all required to put the fighters in the air at the right time and in the right place.

As well as routine air defence cover, high profile events require particular attention, and the RAF’s Tornado and Typhoon fighter force, air defence ground environment (search radars and networked communications) and specialist Sentry airborne warning radar aircraft are all necessary elements of the comprehensive air defence system necessary to achieve this. A QRA commitment is also retained in the Falklands, where a small force of Typhoon fighters acts as a continuing and cost-effective deterrent to any potential incursions against the sovereignty of the Islands.

And the echoes of 1940 still resonate strongly. The highly capable air defence system that protects the UK today is clearly recognisable as a lineal descendent of the brilliantly effective ‘Dowding System’ of sector control, and some of the key battle locations even remain within the defence estate. These include RAF Northolt, the home of the RAF’s Free Polish squadrons during the battle, and a reminder of the multi-national nature of Fighter Command in 1940, a harbinger of the coalition approach to air power that is such a feature of operations today.

Photography: RAF/MOD/Crown Copyright.