List of aircraft and helicopters in the Royal Air Force
List of active aircraft and helicopters in the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force
For aircraft that are no longer in service, see: Historic aircraft of the Royal Air Force .
Warplanes | |||||
number | designation | Intended use | Commissioning | annotation | photo |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
138 | Eurofighter Typhoon F2 / FGA.4 | Multipurpose fighter | 2004 | ||
17th | Lockheed Martin F-35B / Lightning II | Multipurpose fighter | 2015 | 48 F-35Bs initially planned, 138 in the long term | |
Reconnaissance and EloKa aircraft | |||||
4th | Beechcraft Shadow R1 | spotter | 2004 | ||
7th | Sentry E-3D AWACS | spotter | 1991 | AEW aircraft | |
2 | Boeing P-8 Poseidon | Scout / submarine hunter | 2020 | 7 more ordered | |
3 | Boeing RC-135 | Electronics scouts | 2013 | ||
3 | Britten-Norman Islander C2 | spotter | |||
5 | Raytheon Sentinel R1 | spotter | 2006 | ||
Drones | |||||
10 | MQ-9A Reaper | Combat drone | 2007 | 16 MQ-9Bs with the option of 10 more will replace the MQ-9A in the near future. | |
Transport and tanker aircraft | |||||
9 | Airbus A330 Voyager KC2 / KC3 | Tanker and transport aircraft | Late 2011 | a total of 14 are leased | |
21st | Airbus A400M Atlas C1 | Multipurpose transporter | November 2014 | still 1 ordered | |
4th | BAe-146 CC2, C3 | VIP transporter | 1986 | 2 each CC2 and C3 | |
8th | Boeing C-17A Globemaster III | strategic transporter | 2000 | ||
24 | Lockheed Hercules C4 / C5 (C-130J) | tactical transporter | 1999 | ||
Transport helicopter | |||||
46 | Boeing Chinook HC2 / HC2A / HC3 (CH / MH-47D) | medium transport helicopter | 1980 (basic version HC1) | 14 more (CH-47F) ordered, the rest will be modernized | |
25th | AgustaWestland Merlin HC3 / HC3A | medium transport helicopter | 2001 | ||
22nd | Westland Sea King HAR3 / HAR3A | SAR helicopter | 1977 | almost all out of service in 2015, some copies for training (Chivenor) and the Falkland SAR service ( Mount Pleasant ) | |
30th | Aérospatiale / Westland Puma HC1 | medium transport helicopter | 1971 | 24 are modified to the HC2 version | |
4th | Bell Griffin | light transport helicopter | 1995 | ||
3 | AgustaWestland AW109 | VIP transporter | 2005 | ||
Training aircraft and helicopters | |||||
16 | Eurofighter Typhoon T1 / T3 | two-seat fighter aircraft | 2004 | a further 7 plus 13 of tranche 3B currently ordered | |
74 | BAE Hawk T1 / T1A / T1W | two-seat fighter aircraft | 1976/1983/1990 | ||
18th | BAE Hawk T2 | two-seat fighter aircraft | 2009 | 3 more ordered | |
9 | King Air T1 (King Air B200) | Multi-engine aircraft trainer | 2004 | ||
54 | Embraer Tucano T1 | Advanced trainer | 1985 | ||
120 | Gross tutor | Basic trainer | 1999 | ||
Slingsby Firefly | Basic trainer | 1982 | |||
Eurocopter Squirrel | Training helicopter | 1997 |