page_title: RAF Regiment
section_title: Organisation and role
hierarchical_section_title: RAF Regiment / Organisation and role
caption_attribution_description: English: RAF Regiment Gunner wearing Osprey body armour in the outskirts of Basrah City, Iraq. Easily visible are the upper arm protectors and collar which offer enhanced protection against fragmentation.
context_page_description: The Royal Air Force Regiment is part of the Royal Air Force and functions as a specialist corps founded by Royal Warrant in 1942. The Corps carries out soldiering tasks relating to the delivery of air power. Examples of such tasks are Non Combatant Evacuation Operations, recovery of downed aircrew, and in-depth defence of airfields by way of aggressively patrolling a large area of operations outside airfields in hostile environments. In addition the RAF Regiment provides Joint Terminal Attack Controllers to the British Army and Royal Marines, and provides flight size commitment to the Special Forces Support Group.
  The RAF Regiment Gunners are personnel trained in various disciplines such as infantry tactics, force protection, field craft, sniper, support Special Forces operations, CBRN defence, equipped with advanced vehicles and detection measures. RAF Regiment instructors are responsible for training all Royal Air Force personnel in basic force protection such as first aid, weapon handling and CBRN skills.
  The regiment and its members are known within the RAF as "The Regiment", "Rock Apes" or "Rocks".
context_section_description: The RAF Regiment comes under command of 2 Group, Air Command. Its members are organised into eight regular squadrons, - Nos 1, 2, 15, 26, 27, 34, 51 and 63/Queen's colour Squadron - of which six are field squadrons and two are specialist CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear units under the umbrella of the defence CBRN Wing (No 20 Wing RAF Regiment -see note below), plus four Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF) Regiment (RAuxAF Regt) squadrons. These are intended to counter ground-based threats to overseas/deployed RAF assets and, to this end, are trained as mobile infantry to move on foot, or in helicopters and protected mobility vehicles, to defend airfields and landing sites. The large area surrounding airfields (regularly up to 140 km square) means RAF Regiment rifle flights (platoons) often spend long periods of time deployed on the ground deterring and detecting potential attackers. Leaving aside those injured, seriously or otherwise, five RAF Regiment gunners were killed in Iraq (one in a firefight, three, including a member of the RAauxAF, in a single mortar strike, and one in a road traffic incident) and five were killed in Afghanistan (one due to hostile fire, four due to IEDs, including one 51 year old member of the RAauxAF, the oldest member of the British Armed Forces to die in Afghanistan) with an additional man dying in an accident in Cyprus after leaving Afghanistan. Additionally, over the same period, three Military Crosses have been awarded to RAF Regiment members for conspicuous bravery. Four RAF Regiment personnel were killed by the IRA, all in 1988 and 1989 - one killed by hostile fire in Northern Ireland, the rest by snipers or bombs wired to cars in Europe.
  The field squadrons are 171 strong making them larger than an infantry company in the British Army but, critically, due to the nature of their structure, a key limitation is that they are only able to operate up to Company/Squadron level and so cannot bring the same 'Mass' to bear of an Infantry Regiment or Battlegroup. Not all personnel on an RAF Regiment squadron are trained gunners but can be involved in specialist support services such as administrators and drivers. A typical RAF Regiment squadron has support elements from the RAF but these personnel do not always deploy on patrols and other combat operations. Formerly, all RAF Regiment personnel were men, as it was British government policy that women could not serve in close combat units. However, the intention was that by the end of 2018, women would be allowed to apply for these roles, with the RAF recruitment website 'looking forward' to female applications for the RAF Regiment. A review in 2017 determined that, although the Regiment was deemed to be the Royal Air Force's infantry, it was more alike to the Royal Armoured Corps in terms of risk. As a result, women will be allowed into the RAF Regiment from September 2017, which is a full year before other infantry units. In January 2020, the first female recruit to complete the 20-week training course, passed out of RAF Honington. 
  As of December 2016, there are approximately 1,920 regular airmen (i.e. other ranks) and officers, and 570 reservists.
caption: An RAF Regiment gunner in Iraq
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