Heavy aircraft are a regular feature in the skies around Royal Air Force Wittering and last week Exercise Swift Pirate completed its first successful year.
Memories of Mission Impossible first returned to the Cambridgeshire Station when an RAF A400M Atlas aircraft touched down in March 2018, marking the beginning of this important training event.
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Image By: SAC Matty Smith
No 1 Air Mobility Wing (1AMW) specialises in aircraft handling, passenger and cargo handling and the safe loading and unloading of military transport aircraft. 1AMW is based at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire but is part of the RAF A4 Force, which is has its headquarters at Royal Air Force Wittering.
Image By: SAC Kim Waterson
During Exercise Swift Pirate RAF Wittering doubles as a primitive airfield in a foreign country so that 1AMW personnel can perfect the skills they’ll need for deployed operations. RAF personnel must adapt to harsh conditions and airfields in foreign countries are not always well-equipped.
Image By: SAC Kim Waterson
Last week Royal Air Force C17 Globemasters and C130 Hercules aircraft arrived, giving 1AMW the chance to work on strategic and tactical aircraft. It was the sixth iteration of Swift Pirate, cementing the exercise firmly into the pattern of life at the Cambridgeshire Station.
Image By: SAC Kim Waterson
Wing Commander Stu Gregory commands 1AMW. He said: “We’ve been doing Swift Pirate at RAF Wittering for a year now and the Station is an ideal place for this kind of fieldwork and live aircraft operations. It’s also only a short flying distance from RAF Brize Norton, which allows us to work through multiple training serials in a short period.”
Image By: SAC Kim Waterson
1AMW have repeatedly practiced aircraft handling (moving aircraft to the right position when landed) and loading and unloading. Between 60 and 70 men and women of varying ranks are involved in each deployment of Swift Pirate. Most are training, with some directing the exercise or adopting the roles of enemy forces.
Wing Commander Nick Maxey is Officer Commanding Operations Wing and ensures that the Station’s airfield and airspace are safe. He said: “This exercise has shown that Wittering’s airfield does offer more to Defence. It’s a concept we knew we could prove, and over the last year our team has most definitely made it work.”
Group Captain Tony Keeling is the Station Commander at Royal Air Force Wittering. He said: “We have been very fortunate with Exercise Swift Pirate. There is no question of the morale-boosting effect that the arrival of front-line aircraft has on everyone here. The training benefit for 1AMW and our Ops Wing and Air Traffic personnel is massive, and seeing these aircraft operating at Wittering has certainly inspired our student pilots as they start their journey to the front line.”
The Station Commander concluded: “It is my intent that we continue with Swift Pirate indefinitely and continue to show the Defence community just how useful this Station is. For now, it is enough that we are keeping this airfield busy and our personnel from 1AMW prepared and ready for operations.”
