British Typhoon jets demolished a Daesh held building in Iraq.

The Ministry of Defence say that on the 16th of July, two Typhoon jets from RAF Akrotiri, supported by a Voyager air refuelling tanker, were directed to a remote area of the desert in western Iraq, some 55 miles south-west of Ramadi, where a concealed terrorist stockpile of weapons had been identified.

“Our aircraft delivered an attack with a single Paveway IV guided bomb which scored a direct hit, destroying the stockpiled weaponry.”

The Royal Air Force said in a statement:

“Royal Air Force aircraft, alongside those from other coalition partners, have continued to fly daily patrols over Iraq and Syria following the liberation of the last Daesh-held territory by the Syrian Democratic Forces at Baghuz Fawqani in March.

These missions provide reconnaissance information about any attempts by the terrorists to re-establish an operational presence in the region, and are able to strike any such activity that is detected.”


Background on Operation Shader

This section is intended to provide a bit of background on British efforts in the region and if you’ve read it before, please remember others may not have.

By September last year, the Ministry of Defence had announced that over 1,000 personnel were engaged in theatre and that the Royal Air Force had conducted around 1,000 airstrikes, flying over 2,800 sorties, killing over 3,000 Islamic State fighters.

Last year, it was reported that the Royal Air Force was operating at its most intense for 25 years in a single theatre of operation which far outstripped the UK involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan – RAF jets have dropped 11 times more bombs (1,276 strikes) on Syria and Iraq in the preceding 12 months than they had in the busiest year of action in Afghanistan a decade previously.

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George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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Cam
Cam
4 years ago

why don’t we ever hear allot about how the RAF is doing in Iraq or Syria on the UK news? Scared we might incite British born Muslim terrorists to kill british concert going kids!! Again!.

Steve R
Steve R
4 years ago
Reply to  Cam

More that it’s not really news any more I think. Daesh are a spent force and all but gone. Give it a few months and all of Daesh will be able to fit in the same taxi together.

Andy
Andy
4 years ago
Reply to  Cam

Your words are inciting Cam, racist much?

julian1
julian1
4 years ago
Reply to  Cam

Since the caliphate fell, I guess its fallen out of the news – its very much yesterday’s news now. Here in the US I saw an article that Daesh are regrouping in areas of Iraq and remoter Syrian areas. I don’t think we can write them off just yet. I think there maybe a need to continue hitting them at a much lower intensity almost indefinitely – though I don’t think this will actually happen due to loss of political will/interests/new threasts elsewhere. Look at the peace process in Afghan with the Talebs – I guess in that case as… Read more »

Barry Larking
Barry Larking
4 years ago
Reply to  Cam

My local regiment returning from active service in Afghanistan was given a parade through this city at midday on a Friday.

Trevor
Trevor
4 years ago
Reply to  Cam

Probably. The media, which basically for the public is the BBC, are just a bunch of Quislings. The BBC feed the public a diet of dreary heartless drama, bigoted news and tuneless self righteous comedians.

Herodotus
4 years ago
Reply to  Trevor

That’s a bit on the harsh side Trevor….although I think that the BBC is a little energetic when it comes to social engineering!

Trevor
Trevor
4 years ago
Reply to  Herodotus

The BBC peddle downright lies and many of its commentators are downright bigoted. You would get more entertaining drama from watching the tellytubbies. Most of its over opinionated comedians are about as funny as sitting on a cracked toilet seat.

Herodotus
4 years ago
Reply to  Trevor

Well I wouldn’t go that far! But I do think it is time to look at the role of the BBC and how it is funded. I think the licence fee is an antiquated concept as we move further into subscription tv. However, the BBC does produce some fabulous science and natural history programming that is the envy of many other broadcasters. Not an easy problem to solve!

DaveyB
DaveyB
4 years ago
Reply to  Trevor

Always though Noo-Noo was the hero of that show. Just don’t get me started on the Midnight Garden that my nephews are watching.

Jon
Jon
4 years ago
Reply to  Cam

No, there are no such British born muslim in existance in Britain to attack Britain with home made primitive things but, there are groups of infiltrated young muslims, that are trained by Jewish agencies from israel, posing as hard core islamo-mohamedic, fanatics, as they speak and read the coran by heart and here of course, they kill, bomb and sabotage and all other terrorists acts as instructed by their masters jews in disguise “”muslim terrorists “” more point in world opinions for USrael, the civilised nation!

Steve R
Steve R
4 years ago

I love the Typhoon, always wanted to fly one when I was a kid but glasses and colour blind so never would have been let near one.

However, I do keep thinking this would have been a better job for the Tornados. They were originally going to be retired in 2025 so might as well knacker them out on this rather than putting wear and tear on Typhoon airframes.

Should have kept the Tornados until we had enough F35s to replace them. Same as the Harrier really. Shame.

DaveyB
DaveyB
4 years ago
Reply to  Steve R

For a medium level bombing role, the Typhoon is more than adequate. It’s operating in a relatively benign environment over Iraq, unless it’s operating over Syria. So, not much strain is being put on the airframe. It is burning through airframe hours though, which hastens its periodical maintenance. The problem apart from using up airframe hours is that this is excellent training for the crews. I’m including groundcrew and support staff in this as well as pilots. It gives the whole staff realistic training, which is the next step above exercises like red flag. A more realistic aircraft for this… Read more »

Steve R
Steve R
4 years ago
Reply to  DaveyB

The Typhoon itself is a great platform, yeah. I’d prefer to have limited those airframe flying hours by using the Tornados until 2025; they’re going to be knackered in a few years anyway so might as well have gotten as much use out of them as we could. The problem with the MoD (caused by the treasury!) is this whole thing about only having 2 combat aircraft types and also purchasing such low numbers. It’s adding miles on the clocks of the Typhoons for jobs that could have been done more cheaply by the Tornados, which will end up being… Read more »