For the past four weeks F-35B Lightnings have been deployed to the land of ice and fire – the first time they’ve been deployed on the key NATO mission.
The stealth fighters of 617 ‘Dambusters’ Squadron can normally be found either at RAF Marham – or on the deck of HM Ships Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales.
They swapped East Anglia for Naval Air Station Keflavik – next to Iceland’s principal airport, two dozen miles from the capital Reykjavik – for Operation Masterer.
For more than 15 years, NATO aircraft have patrolled Icelandic skies, responding to a request from the host nation which has no air force of its own to perform the mission.
Four F-35Bs have carried out the operation – the first time the UK’s only fifth-generation fighters have been used for Quick Reaction Alert duties.
QRA is the RAF’s response to hostile/unknown/rogue aircraft approaching the UK’s airspace – the modern-day equivalent of ringing the bell in the Battle of Britain and shouting ‘Scramble’.
This is the first time the Lightning Force has been called on to perform ‘Q shouts’ as the scrambles are known in RAF parlance – the mission has typically been carried out by Typhoons.
As a result, says junior engineering officer (‘’JENGO’ or Deputy Air Engineering Officer in his native Jackspeak) Lieutenant Sankey, the squadron has had to revise the way it works to have an F-35B immediately ready for take-off – known as ‘cocked on’.