RAF Wittering News

The fuels support team from No 1 Expeditionary Logistics Squadron at Royal Air Force Wittering were testing their skills this week in Exercise Steel Viper.

Aircraft do not fly without fuel, but not all airfields in the world are well equipped. Keeping RAF aircraft fuelled in places where good quality fuels are hard to obtain is one of the many roles of No 1 Expeditionary Logistics Squadron (1ELS). Exercise Steel Viper is the Squadron’s way of testing the Fuels Support Team's (FST) ability to deploy and set up a fuel site.

1ELS’s Primary Bulk Fuel Installation (PBFI) can be assembled almost anywhere and will keep fuel in good condition and ready for aircraft use. It can be refilled by industry standard road-tankers and pump fuel to the specialised trucks that carry aircraft fuel to aircraft.

The PBFI is a large and complex setup. Sergeant Sadie Johnstone (37) and her team intensively tested their own ability to safely construct the PBFI, check the quality of the fuels and supervise the transfer of fuels as though they were deployed to a foreign airbase.

Sgt Johnstone said: “This is about keeping us ready, making sure we have the knowledge and skills to go wherever the RAF needs to send its aircraft. The supply of fuel by 1 ELS FST can be key to allowing RAF aircraft to operate and fly safely around the world.”

In a series of drills designed to mimic an overseas operation, powerful Oshkosh tankers from 2 Mechanical Transport Squadron (2MT) delivered and drew fuel from the PBFI, providing useful training for the drivers.

Working with fuels is a demanding business that requires high levels of technical expertise and months of training. Sgt Johnstone said: “The diversity of working in deployed fuels  is so different from what we would normally do on a main operating base; it can be challenging but very rewarding.”

1ELS’s main task is to support the UK’s deployed air operations; to make sure the RAF has the right amounts of the correct equipment and fuel, when and where they are needed. It is one of several squadrons that make up the A4 Force, which provides the RAF with the specialist engineering and logistic capabilities it needs for deployed operations.

Exercise Steel Viper takes its name from the Squadron’s badge, which shows a snake transporting an aircraft component to a spitfire.

Squadron Leader Liz Wheatley (41) is Officer Commanding 1ELS. She said: “Wherever you project air power, fuel will be needed. The team has been working in testing conditions and have overcome several challenges in the build, but they have done well and succeeded. Ultimately, we could be sent anywhere in the world at very short notice and we have to be ready for all conditions and eventualities.”