1/72 Corgi RAF Eurofighter Typhoon, Operation Ellamy, Libya 2011
UNSCR 1973 was passed on 17 Mar 11; it authorised “all necessary measures, short of the deployment of a foreign occupation force, to protect civilians and civilian populated areas from attack”. That same day, the RAF Typhoon Force was given warning of deployment and a day later an Operations Warning Order directed HQ Air Command to prepare Tornado GR4 to strike Storm Shadow targets from the UK on 19 Mar 11.
On 20 Mar 11, ten Typhoon aircraft deployed from RAF Coningsby to Gioia Del Colle (GDC) in Southern Italy and by lunchtime the next day two Typhoons were flying Combat Air Patrols in support of the No Fly Zone. On the same day the first of four Tornado GR4s deployed from RAF Marham to GDC via missions in Libya. Throughout this period, combat aircraft were supported by E-3D Sentry, Nimrod R1, Sentinel and VC10 AAR forward deployed to RAF Akrotiri. As the campaign progressed and to extend time on task, AAR aircraft and E-3D’s were moved to Trapani, Sicily, and Sentinel was moved to GDC.
On average 953 RAF personnel were forward deployed at any one time; working from Poggio, Gioia Del Colle, Trapani and Akrotiri. Almost 2,000 passengers and more than 890,000 kg of freight were moved by air in support of Op ELLAMY.
For the first four days Typhoon operations were supported by only 31 ground crew, sustaining an operational tempo of four missions per day. In order to protect Libyan civilians the focus moved to interdicting Pro-Gadhafi Forces on the ground, rather than preventing air attack, and on 31 Mar 11 the Typhoons began moving to the Air-to-Surface role.
The first Typhoon Op ELLAMY multi-role sortie was flown in mixed formation with a Tornado GR4 on 7 Apr 11.
These mixed formations combined complimentary capabilities, providing a range of graduated response weapons, a full Air Defence capability, an ability to see the air picture and receive tasking through data link, and an organic Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability provided by Litening III pods.
I'm too lazy to explain about this particular scaled model. Just copy and paste
credit: RAF.mod.uk
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