RAF pilots secretly preparing to launch anti-IS strikes in Syria
London : Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots are secretly training to launch air strikes on Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria in anticipation of a Parliament vote to expand the UK’s involvement in the war-torn country. RAF Tornado fighter-bombers are currently restricted to hitting the terrorist group in Iraq from an airbase in Cyprus.
“We would be doing exactly the same job as we are doing in Iraq in a different piece of air space,” Air Commodore Martin Sampson, in charge of RAF’s Iraq mission, told The Times.
“The target is the same: ISIS. We are very well versed at striking them and we would do exactly the same thing in Syria. The Tornado crews are ready to execute the mission wherever the politicians deem it necessary”.
The expanded training received by the crews included understanding what the new operating area would be and any change to the weapons being dropped, the newspaper reported.
Prime Minister David Cameron is yet to signal when he plans to ask MPs to vote on widening the range of the RAF’s firepower against IS.
But the UK government feels it is illogical to restrict Britain’s Tornado jets and armed Reaper drones to Iraqi airspace when IS is active on both sides of the border.
Air Commodore Sampson said the recent addition of Russian jets operating in Syrian airspace would have little effect on any expanded British mission because of the ability of the US-led coalition to monitor air-traffic movement.
Precision strikes using Brimstone missiles against lone targets have prompted a change in the way that IS militants in Iraq operate. Any shift to Syria could result in the requirement to deploy more Brimstone missiles again.
