On 25 January 2013, a Sentinel R1 deployed to Dakar-Ouakam Air Base, Senegal, to assist with France's Operation Serval in Mali. Over the course of a four-month long detachment, Sentinels flew a total of 697 hours across 66 sorties. On 18 May 2014, the squadron deployed a Sentinel to Kotoka International Airport, Ghana, in order to assist with searching for 223 schoolgirls who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria. In September 2014, the squadron temporarily relocated to RAF Cranwell along with No. 14 Squadron due to the resurfacing of RAF Waddington's runway which took over a year to complete. No. 5 (AC) Squadron sent a single Sentinel R.1 to Exercise Red Flag 15–1 at Nellis AFB, Nevada, between 26 January and 13 February 2015. On 26 March 2015, No. 5 (AC) Squadron deployed two Sentinel R1s to RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, in support of Operation Shader.