Royal Air Force
RAF Mount Pleasant, built following the surrender of Argentine invasion forces, is capable of accepting trans-Atlantic aircraft such as the Lockheed TriStar. The TriStar was purchased mainly for the UK-Falklands route, until their entry into service the UK used leased 747s and 767s. The TriStar will be replaced by the Airbus Voyager.
Four Typhoon aircraft provide air defence for the islands and surrounding territories and have a secondary ground attack role.
A VC10 provides air transport and aerial refuelling for the fighters. When a fighter is launched it is almost immediately followed by the VC10 as changeable weather conditions might make diversion to another airfield necessary. The Hercules provides resupply missions through the use of air-drops and also carries out maritime patrol. The latter is an important mission to the Falkland Islands government as the Hercules verifies that all fishing vessels are licensed; at £1,000 per licence per season this is an extremely lucrative source of income.
The helicopters of No. 1564 Flight (formerly No. 78 Squadron) provide air transport missions. The Sea Kings carry out short and medium range search and rescue missions. The sole remaining Chinook was returned to the UK in October 2006 to be redeployed to Afghanistan.
Read more about this topic: Military Of The Falkland Islands
Famous quotes containing the words royal, air and/or force:
“Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.”
—Mary Arrigo (20th century)
“That air would disappear from the whole earth in time, perhaps; but long after his day. He did not know just when it had become so necessary to him, but he had come back to die in exile for the sake of it. Something soft and wild and free, something that whispered to the ear on the pillow, lightened the heart, softly, softly picked the lock, slid the bolts, and released the prisoned spirit of man into the wind, into the blue and gold, into the morning, into the morning!”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“‘Tis happy, therefore, that nature breaks the force of all sceptical arguments in time, and keeps them from having any considerable influence on the understanding. Were we to trust entirely to their self-destruction, that can never take place, ‘till they have first subverted all conviction, and have totally destroy’d human reason.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)