Operations
RAF Leuchars is commanded by an Air Commodore instead of a Group Captain who would usually be given command of a station. This is because the base commander here also undertakes the role of Air Officer Scotland. The present base commander is Air Commodore Parker who succeeded Air Commodore R J Atkinson.
Leuchars was home to the last squadron of Panavia Tornado F3s, No. 111 Squadron. 111 Sqn operated the Quick Reaction Alert which was set up primarily to combat threats from Soviet attacks during the Cold War. The unit was disbanded in March 2011.
The station is also home to No. 125 Expeditionary Air Wing, as well as the East of Scotland Universities Air Squadron (ESUAS) and XII Air Experience Flight (12 AEF), who both use a fleet of seven Tutor T Mark 1's. No 125 Expeditionary Air Wing (EAW) was formed at Leuchars on 1 April 2006. The wing encompasses most of the non-formed unit personnel and does not include the flying units based at the station. The station commander is dual-hatted as the commander of the wing.
Leuchars is also the base for No. 612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force (an air-transportable surgical squadron), an RAF Mountain Rescue Unit, and is the airfield of use for the local Air Training Corps units. It is also the parent station to several remote units in the central Scotland area, mainly the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde Air Squadron, but also 661 and 662 Volunteer Gliding Squadrons.
The other operational UK air defence base since June 2007 is RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, which operates the Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4.
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Famous quotes containing the word operations:
“It may seem strange that any road through such a wilderness should be passable, even in winter, when the snow is three or four feet deep, but at that season, wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually passing on the single track, and it becomes as smooth almost as a railway.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)
“There is a patent office at the seat of government of the universe, whose managers are as much interested in the dispersion of seeds as anybody at Washington can be, and their operations are infinitely more extensive and regular.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)