Royal Air Force's No 12 Squadron prepares for Afghanistan mission. Jamie Hunter reports from RAF Fairford on exercise 'Crown Condor'.

(A Tornado GR4 flown by No 12(B) Squadron returns to the 'austere' base set up at RAF Fairford under 'Crown Condor'.)

'Ready for anything' is the motto of RAF Lossiemouth's 140th Expeditionary Air Wing. Exercise 'Crown Condor' held at RAF Fairford in October was designed to ensure just that as No 12(B) Squadron deployed eight of its Tornado GR4s here under the EAW. Commanded by Wg Cdr James Linter, the squadron is working up ready to become the lead RAF GR4 unit to deploy to Afghanistan under Operation 'Herrick' in 2009, replacing the deployed Harrier Force. No 12(B) Squadron is truly living up to its motto of 'Leads the Field' - taking the GR4 into the harsh environment of operations from Kandahar. The exercise at Fairford enabled the establishment of a 'Bare Base', built up in just 10 days with tented operations centres and everything from an austere medical centre to field catering facilities. Force Protection is also clearly a massive part of such operations and the exercise was testing the personnel in every element of what they may face in Helmand Province.

(The Swedish AF brought seven Saab Gripens to Fairford for exercise 'Crown Condor'.)

Also present at Fairford were seven Saab JAS-39C/D Gripens from 171 Squadron at Ronneby, Sweden. The Gripens joined the Tornado GR4s in flying mainly Close Air Support (CAS) missions under exercise 'Joint Warrior', operating mainly in Wales with Joint Tactical Attack Controllers (JTACs). Swedish squadron commander Lt Col Anders Segerby told Combat Aircraft: 'We are sharing ideas and discussing tactics, but not actually flying missions together. We have six pilots here that also participated in the recent 'Red Flag' exercise at Nellis'. Lt Col Segerby said that there is a 'political will' for the Swedish AF to deploy assets to Afghanistan, and that any possible deployment may be to the north of the country at Mazer-e-Sharif. He also said that his squadron was expecting to receive Edition 19 standard upgrades in 2009 for the Gripen. This includes Link-16 capability, full night vision goggle (NVG) integration and possibly the new IRST missile.

(Lt Col Anders Segerby, commander of 171 Squadron.)

For a more detailed report on the RAF's preparations to take the Tornado GR4 to Afghanistan be sure to see an exclusive report in the next issue of Combat Aircraft (9.6). On sale in the UK from 28 November.

Photo captions - all photos Jamie Hunter.