No. VIII Squadron RAF

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=No. VIII Squadron RAF


role=AWACS
equipment=E-3 Sentry
garrison=RAF Waddington
motto="Uspiam et passim" (Latin: "Everywhere unbounded")
identification_symbol=A sheathed Arabian dagger
dates=1 January 1915 (RFC)
battle_honours=Western Front 1915-1918, Loos, Somme, Arras, Cambrai 1917, Somme 1918, Amiens, Hindenburg Line, Kurdistan 1922-1924, Aden 1928, Aden 1929, Aden 1934, East Africa 1940-1941, Eastern Waters 1942-1945, Burma 1945, Kosovo

No. VIII Squadron (8 Sqn) of the Royal Air Force operates the Boeing E-3D Sentry from RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire.

The RAF AWACS fleet is made up of seven E-3Ds, with the UK designation Sentry AEW1 and the aircraft are pooled between 8 Sqn and No. 23 Squadron.

History

As No. 8 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps it was formed at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1915, but soon moved to France, where it spent the rest of the war in the Army Cooperation role. After the war, the squadron was moved to the Middle East, including spells in Egypt and Iraq. The squadron's association with the Middle East gave rise to the adoption of the Arabian dagger as the unit's badge. 8 Sqn continued to be based in and around the region up until 1971, when it moved to RAF Kinloss, the first time it had been based in the UK since 1915.

The squadron moved to the Airborne Early Warning (AEW) role on Avro Shackletons at Kinloss in 1971, moving to RAF Lossiemouth in 1973, where it stayed until its disbandment in 1991. The squadron was then receiving the first of the E-3Ds at its present home of RAF Waddington.

Almost immediately upon becoming operational on the Sentry in 1991, the squadron was deployed on operations over the Balkans. The squadron, along with its sister 23 Sqn, have operated the Sentry over Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Previous aircraft operated

* BE.2c - 1915
* Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8 - 1918
* DH 9A - 1920
* Fairey IIIF - 1927
* Bristol Blenheim - 1939
* Consolidated Liberator - 1945
* de Havilland Mosquito - 1946
* Hawker Tempest - 1947
* Bristol Brigand - 1949
* de Havilland Vampire - 1953
* de Havilland Venom - 1956
* Hawker Hunter - 1960
* Avro Shackleton - 1973

ee also

*List of Royal Air Force aircraft squadrons

References

* [http://www.raf.mod.uk/structure/8squadron.cfm Royal Air Force website]