Delivering adversary training and contributing to UK Quick Reaction Alert
Throughout the night we fly
IX Bomber Squadron is stationed at RAF Lossiemouth, Moray, Scotland. IX(B) Squadron now provides specialist adversary, or aggressor training to frontline units. Aircraft flown have included the Vickers Vimy, Avro Lancaster and Vulcan, English Electric Canberra and Panavia Tornado. IX(B) Squadron was the first RAF unit to conduct air strikes over Libya during Operation ELLAMY in 2011.
1914 Formed at St Omer as 9 (Wireless) Squadron on 8 December, but disbanded March 1915. Re-formed at Brooklands, Surrey in April before taking its Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c biplanes to France for bombing and reconnaissance. Disbanded 1919.
1924 Re-established on 1 April as IX (Bomber) Squadron flying the Vimy for night bombing. Received the Vickers Virginia from January 1925 and the Handley Page Heyford in 1936.
1939 Re-equipped with the Vickers Wellington in February and flew on the first World War II RAF bombing raid to actually drop bombs, against shipping at Brunsbüttel, on 4 September.
1942 Re-equipped with the Lancaster, using the type in the significant raid against Peenemünde in August 1943.
1944 Flew alongside 617 Squadron, dropping 12,000lb Tallboy bombs in a 12 November raid on the battleship Tirpitz. The ship was permanently disabled.
1945 The actions of Flight Sergeant George Thompson, wireless operator on a 9 Squadron Lancaster attacking the Dortmund-Ems canal on 1 January, earned him a posthumous Victoria Cross.
1946 In July the squadron began operating Avro Lincolns. Re-equipped with the Canberra in 1952.
1956 No. IX Squadron served a three-month tour in Malaya during Operation FIREDOG, returned briefly to the UK, then despatched to Malta for the Suez Crisis.
1961 Disbanded in July; re-formed in August on the Vulcan.
1982 Disbanded in April; re-formed in June, at RAF Honington, as the RAF’s first frontline Tornado squadron. Moved to Brüggen, West Germany, in 1986, flying in the 1991 Gulf War and over Kosovo in 1999.
1999 Became the first frontline Tornado GR4 unit, before moving to RAF Marham in 2001. Deployed for Operation TELIC, over Iraq, in 2003.
2010 Deployed to Afghanistan under Operation HERRICK, returning for repeat tours in 2012 and 2014.
2011 Led the initial Storm Shadow attack on installations in Libya from RAF Marham, the first RAF offensive mission launched from UK soil since 1945. Subsequently deployed to Italy for Operation ELLAMY.
2014 Began operations against Daesh in Syria and Iraq under Operation SHADER; a mixed IX(B) and 31 Squadron flight completed the final Tornado SHADER sortie on 31 January 2019.
2019 Disbanded at RAF Marham. Re-formed at RAF Lossiemouth, as a Eurofighter Typhoon aggressor and QRA squadron.
1915- 1918* Western Front
1916* Somme
1917* Ypres
Amiens
Hindenburg Line
1939-1945 Channel and North Sea
1940 Norway
1939-1945 Baltic
1940 France and Low Countries
1940-1945 German Ports
1940-1944 Fortress Europe
1941-1945* Berlin
1940-1945 Biscay ports
1941-1945 Ruhr
1944-1945 France and Germany
Tirpitz*
The Dams*
Rhine
1991* Gulf
2003* Kosovo
2003-2011 Iraq
2011* Libya
Honours marked with an asterisk, may be emblazoned on the Squadron Standard.
Please contact the home station Media Communications team for more information or to contact the Squadron
Media enquiries details for RAF Lossiemouth 
