The RAF has delivered more than 12,500 ration packs and 79 battlefield medical kits to the Lebanese Armed Forces.
This package of medical supplies and provisions are funded by the UK’s Integrated Security Fund and will help support the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).
As the only legitimate military force of the Lebanese state, investing in the Lebanese Armed Forces is essential to the future security and stability of Lebanon, and the wider region.
For more than a decade, the UK has given critical support to the Lebanese Armed Forces as a trusted partner, through training, mentoring and the provision of equipment. Since 2009, the UK has trained over 34,000 Lebanese Armed Forces personnel and dedicated over £106 million in funding including the gifting of over 300 Land rovers. The UK has also helped to construct nearly 80 Border Observation posts and Forward Operating Bases as part of our efforts to support Lebanese border security.
The Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, and Defence Secretary continue to call for an immediate ceasefire in the region to allow space for a political solution. The FCDO advises all British nationals should leave Lebanon immediately and have arranged several charter flights from Lebanon in recent weeks to support this.
John Healey, Defence Secretary said: "Today’s delivery of supplies from the RAF is in direct response to a request from the Lebanese Armed Forces. We have supported the Lebanese Armed Forces for more than a decade. They are essential to ensuring that the foundations are present for peace in the region. Our support for Lebanese Armed Forces is part of how we aim to reinforce regional security and stability. We continue to work closely with our partners and allies in calling for an immediate ceasefire."
In October 2024, as a direct response to the mass displacement of people and growing number of civilian casualties, the UK boosted its humanitarian support for Lebanon with a further £10 million. The announcement follows the £5 million humanitarian package delivered through UNICEF to support access to clean water and sanitation, health, and nutrition supplies. The UK has also agreed to match public donations to the DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal of up to £10 million.
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The C-17 Globemaster III (Globemaster C-17) is a long-range, heavy-lift strategic transport aircraft that can operate close to a potential area of operations for combat, peacekeeping or humanitarian missions worldwide.
C-17 is capable of rapid, strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases anywhere in the world. The Globemaster’s load-bearing rear ramp and digitally controlled loading systems, combined with the skills of its crews and ground handlers, enable large, complex items of equipment, including Chinook helicopters, military vehicles and other heavy items of specialist kit to be loaded.
It can transport 100,000lb (45,360kg) of freight more than 4,500nm (8,334km) while flying at altitudes above 35,000ft. The aircraft’s design enables high-angle, steep approaches at relatively slow speeds, allowing it to operate into small, austere airfields and onto runways as short as 3,500ft long and just 90ft wide.
The Royal Air Force had been without an organic outsize strategic lift capability since the Short Belfast was withdrawn in 1976, relying, ironically, on civilian-operated Belfasts for the movement of such loads during the 1982 Falklands War and making use of chartered freighters.
By the end of the 1990s it had become clear that this capability gap ought to be filled, and in 2000 the Ministry of Defence (MoD) agreed a seven-year ‘lease and support’ contract with Boeing and the US Air Force (USAF) for four C-17A Globemaster III (Globemaster C-17) strategic transports.
On August 28, 1981, the USAF had chosen the McDonnell Douglas C-17 as winner of its C-X competition for a new military transport aircraft primarily to replace the Lockheed C-141 StarLifter. The C-17’s development process was less than straightforward, however, a complex and changing procurement schedule delaying the first flight until September 15, 1991. Internal manoeuvrings at McDonnell Douglas further complicated the programme as C-17 responsibility moved between divisions and although the 1993 first delivery to an operational USAF unit was from the original manufacturer, in 1997 the C-17 became a Boeing product on the latter’s acquisition of its rival.
The C-17A became the Globemaster III on February 5, 1993, following on from the USAF’s Douglas C-74 Globemaster and C-124 Globemaster II post-war piston-engined transports. By the time the UK defined its initial C-17 requirement, the type was well established in service and the RAF benefitted from access to the global C-17 support network and supply chain. In UK service, the type is typically referred to as C-17 or Globemaster, no formal RAF role/numerical designation (Globemaster C.Mk 1 would have followed the regular pattern of aircraft titles) being applied, since the aircraft was initially leased.
Number 99 Squadron reformed at RAF Brize Norton to operate the aircraft, which rapidly became a stalwart and key enabler of the airbridge operation that sustained UK operations in Afghanistan. Even at the peak of Operation Herrick, however, the C-17 serviced humanitarian and operational commitments elsewhere and rather than taking an option to extend the C-17 lease by two years, the MoD bought the initial four aircraft and ordered a fifth in 2006.
Continued demand saw a sixth ordered in 2007, a seventh in 2009 and the eighth and, to date, final example in 2012. The latter was ordered and delivered within weeks at a reported cost of £200 million according to an MoD press statement.
With the end of Herrick, 99 Squadron has continued flying many of the types of missions in which the C-17 excelled during the operation, moving personnel and equipment, and performing aeromedical evacuation missions with a suite of surgical facilities and staff on board. Support to deployed operations remains as important as ever and RAF C-17s are regular visitors to allied forward bases, particularly in connection with French anti-terrorist work in Africa.
The RAF currently operates eight of these transport aircraft.