RAF Fairford - Exercise Crown Condor

RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England awoke from its usual sleepy state to become home to an active Deployed Operating Base ( DOB ) in October 2008.

At the end of September 2008 the first members of 140 Expeditionary Air Wing ( EAW) arrived at RAF Fairford from their home base at RAF Lossiemouth in Morayshire to take part in Exercise Crown Condor. The Tornados from Lossie were joined by Gripens from Sweden keen to participate in such an exercise.

140 EAW lead by Wing Commander Torben Harris will have the duty to bring “fast jet power” to bear once they complete this years training of which Exercise Crown Condor is the final part of their working up period. As from 1st January 209 140 EAW will be on a 12 month period of alert duty to provide the fast jet EAW response should it be needed, ready to deploy overseas at short notice.

For the purpose of this exercise 140 EAW deployed to the normally vacate southern dispersals at RAF Fairford away from the main hangers and comfortable infrastructure across the runway.

This area was to represent a disused bare base and the job of 140 EAW was to turn this austere environment into a fully functioning fast jet operating base. It took the team 12 days to set up from scratch a secure tented city with four large temporary dispersal hangars up and erected before the first jets arrived.

Everything had to be put in place ranging from the basics such as securing a supply of fresh water through to providing catering and accommodation for almost 1,000 deployed personnel ( including approx 100 from Sweden ) to ensuring the safe and secure operation of fast jets with secure tactical communications, portable control tower, fuel and weapon stores plus a field hospital.

Once the Deployed Operating Base ( DOB ) had been built and was operational the air component of Exercise Crown Condor arrived. This involved deploying 12 ( Bomber ) Sqn with eight Tornado GR4 aircraft down from RAF Lossiemouth.

To help represent the fact that multi national operations are now often the norm overseas the Swedish Air Force ( Flygvapnet ) were invited to participate and deployed with seven JAS 39 Gripen aircraft from 171 Sqn at Ronneby airbase in southern Sweden. These first jets arrived at RAF Fairford on 2^nd October 2008 with the exercise itself running from 6^th – 16^th October 2008.

Deployed Tornado GR4/GR4A aircraft at Exercise Crown Condor table

ZA473 no Code 12 Sqn

ZA543 Code "FF" 12 Sqn - Special 12 Sqn tail markings 1915-2005

ZA556 Code "047" - no Sqn markings

ZD843 Code "106" 15 Sqn

ZD847 Code "108" - no Sqn markings

ZD850 Code "111" - no Sqn markings

ZG727 Code "126" and "AJ-J" 617 Sqn markings - Note GR4A

ZG729 Code "127" 13 Sqn markings - Note GR4A

The Swedish deployment was led by Lt Col Anders Segerby wing commander of F17 Wing based at Ronneby. Among his flight crews were pilots who had recently returned from the JAS 39 Gripen deployment to Red Flag at Nellis AFB USA in August 2008.

The primary mission of 171 Sqn is reconnaissance and air to surface operations. The unit converted from the JA 37 Viggen in 2002 when they received their first JAS 39A / B Gripens – these were replaced with the more advanced JAS 39C / D aircraft in 2004.

Deployed JAS 39C / D Gripen aircraft at Exercise Crown Condor table

39209 JAS39C code "209" 2 missile markings under cockpit

39210 JAS39C code "210" PRI tail marking - Priority use re flight hours

39221 JAS39C code "221" Small “Red Flag” badge on tail

39229 JAS39C code "229"

39230 JAS39C code "230" PRI tail marking - Priority use re flight hours

39267 JAS39C code "267"

39823 JAS39D code "823"

The aircraft and crews from 171 Sqn are part of the Swedish Air Force Rapid Reaction Unit ( SWAFRAP ) and are earmarked as part of the EU Nordic Battle Group formed to support European Union-mandated military action if required and kept at short deployment notice.

Popham - 7th and 9th May 2008

Popham airfield is located next to the A303 a few miles south of Basingstoke. With its cafe it makes a good place to take a break and provides good views of the many aircraft.

Arriving in Feb 2008 was former RAF Jet Provest T5 XW311. This aircraft was built in 1970 and served for many years with 6 FTS at RAF Finningley near Doncaster coded as "W".


After being withdrawn from service it went on to RAF Cosford to act as a ground and technical trainer for 1 SOTT with the maintenance serial of 9180M. Local code "MF" was applied here - the aircraft also wears a DCAE Cosford badge on the intake. I understand it is here temporarily and is en route to a car dealer in Hampshire

Parked around the back at Popham was wingless Auster J1N Alpha G-AGXN


This aircraft was built in 1946 and had flown over 3,770 hours by the end of 2004 - let's hope it's back in the skies soon.


I stopped at Popham again two days later on the 9th May 2008 and found the following aircraft parked by the visitors ramp ( next to the cafe area ).



G-JFLO Aerospool Dynamic WT9 is an attractive modern Slovak design. This example was built in 2007 and is powered by the Rotax 912UL.


Representing an altogether older design is G-AYKT a SAN Jodel D117. This aircraft was built in 1957 and imported into the UK in 1970 and has flown over 2,600 hours by the end of 2006.


Two classic biplanes together - G-ADKM is an example of the pre WW2 De Havilland DH 87B Hornet Moth an elegant enclosed touring aircraft. G-ADKM was built in 1935 and was impressed into service with the RAF as W5751 during World War 2. In the background is Antonov 2 HA-MKF - this aircraft was built at the PZL Mielec factory in Poland in 1985.

Popham is home to at least 6 examples of the Comco Ikarus C42 ultralight aircraft designed in Germany. This example G-CDRO was built in 2005 is used for basic flight training and is kept very busy - other based here include G-CDMS, G-CDVI, G-CDHR and G-CCYR.



Arriving just before I departed was DHC 1 Chipmunk 22 G-BDDD - this aircraft is operated by the RAE Aero Club based at Farnborough and wears the normal RAE "Raspberry Ripple" type colour scheme. This example was built in 1951 and served with the RAF as WD387 as a basic flight trainer for many years until being sold to the civil marked in 1975. By the end of 2006 this aircraft had flown over 11,000 flight hours.