page_title: RAF Regiment
section_title: Post-war
hierarchical_section_title: RAF Regiment / History / Post-war
caption_attribution_description: English: Belize in 1988, part of RAF regiment on their tour in front of Rapier missile.
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: King George VI became Air Commodore-in-Chief of the regiment in 1947. He later decided to present his King's Colour in 1952, on the 10th anniversary of the RAF Regiment's founding. The King, however, died around this time and Queen Elizabeth II instead presented the Queen's Colour a year later.
  The illegal declaration of independence by Rhodesia in November 1965 necessitated support to Zambia, which desperately needed air defence.  In a typically rapid response, Javelin fighters were deployed and an RAF Regiment squadron was also deployed from the United Kingdom to provide ground defence.  The agility of the Regiment was demonstrated in its ability to embark 51 Squadron RAF Regiment in 6 hours from the call to deploy.  At the Eastern end of the Empire, flights from RAF Regiment squadrons based in Singapore deployed to Hong Kong in 1968 to help maintain security and confidence.  The RAF Regiment continued to be involved in Hong Kong into the mid-1970s providing protection at both RAF Kai Tak and at the radar station at Tai Mo Shan.
  In 1974, the Rapier surface-to-air missile system entered service with the RAF Regiment, and equipped four squadrons protecting four RAF airfields in Germany. Detachments from the German Rapier Squadrons, particularly from RAF Gutersloh, deployed to San Carlos beach-head during the Falklands conflict to provide anti-aircraft cover.
  Light armoured squadrons, equipped with FV101 Scorpion and FV107 Scimitar light tracked vehicles continued to be operated into the 1980s. Also from the 1980s units such as 19 Squadron were equipped with Rapier and tasked with defending USAF airbases such as RAF Upper Heyford.
  In July 2004 it was announced that the role of providing ground-based air defence was to be transferred to the British Army's Royal Artillery and the four Royal Air Force Regiment air defence squadrons were to be disbanded.
  In 2011, as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, it was announced that from December 2011, the CBRN role undertaken by the Joint CBRN Regiment, a combined Army/RAF unit, would be transferred to the RAF Regiment (as lead service) under the new Defence CBRN Wing, formed from 26 Squadron, 27 Squadron and 2623 (Auxiliary) Squadron. The army retained involvement through the continued use of the Royal Yeomanry to provide trained battlefield casualty replacements.
  In 2016, this decision was reversed with the announcement the CBRN role would be handed back to the British Army in 2020.
  In November 2013, The Queen's Colour (63), 1 and 27 Squadron had their new colours presented. However 16, 37 and 48 squadrons were disbanded.
  In July 2017, Prince Harry visited RAF Honington on behalf of The Queen to present a new Colour to the RAF Regiment. The new colour was to celebrate the 75th birthday of the formation of the Regiment in 1942.
caption: RAF Regiment in 1988 on tour in Belize with Rapier missile system
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