After the U.S. F-22 Raptor stealth fighters one in April, another deployment will take place in the United Arab Emirates (thus, not far from Iran), in the coming weeks.
In fact, the UK’s Royal Air Force has announced that aircraft and personnel from RAF Marham in Norfolk are to take part in Exercise “Shaheen Star” in the UAE.
Although it was not made public, the aircraft should be be based at the largest airbase in the area, Al Dhafra.
Tornado GR4 fighter bombers from 31 Squadron (that are going to be forward deployed to Afghanistan during March 2013) “will conduct intensive training over a number of weeks, working alongside air forces from partner nations in the region.”
The deployment will be supported by a huge (leased) Antonov An-124 arrived at RAF Marham, which was loaded with all of the support equipment and left on Sept. 2.
What the website doesn’t say is that the Tornado GR4 aircraft left Marham at 11.15am local on Tuesday 4. Sept and met up with a tanker over southern England before departing over France.
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31 Squadron saw action over Libya during 2011.
Richard Clements for TheAviationist.com
Image credit: Rob Birmingham
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