List of aircraft and helicopters in the Royal Air Force

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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
ZJ926 QO-Y Typhoon F.2s of 3 (AC) Sqdn. (4755077772) .jpg
17th Lockheed Martin F-35B / Lightning II Multipurpose fighter 2015 48 F-35Bs initially planned, 138 in the long term
A US Air Force pilot navigates an F-35A Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 58th Fighter Squadron, 33rd Fighter Wing into position to refuel with a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 336th Air Refueling 130516-F-XL333-450.jpg
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
Raf-sentinel-ZJ692-071023-27-16.jpg
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.
MQ-9 Reaper - 090609-F-0000M-777.JPG
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