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familiarisation flights and in a Typhoon simulator. A Typhoon and a Hurricane (the latter from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) gave thrilling air displays. The RAF had divided up one of
the flight lines into numerous displays to cover every aspect of its output. As well as the more well-known units, including the fighter, multi-engine fixed wing and rotary wing squadrons, it was also fascinating to learn about less
well known parts of the RAF
such as the Joint Aircraft
Recovery and Transportation
Squadron, specialists in aircraft crash recovery and runway clearance, the RAF Mountain Rescue Service, the mechanical transportation and mobile catering squadrons, the Tactical Medical Wing and even the impressive deployable laundry capability.
The RAF have taken the lead in ISTAR, including space and cyber environments, and much of this expertise has been amalgamated under 11 Group. The work of No 1 Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing in the compilation, analysis and distribution of multi-domain intelligence stood out. Their organisation was a great example of the fusion of regular and reserve military, civil servant and civilian specialist expertise working in new fields of
development by encouraging innovative thinking, with finite resources; something many of us could learn from.
As the RAF enters its second century, it is impressive to see how it is contributing on operations and to UK objectives globally. It is pleasing to see that
the attributes of an innovative, technologically- focused and forward looking fighting force, whose foundations were laid 100 years ago, are still going strong in 2018.