page_title: No. 27 Squadron RAF
section_title: Post-war service
hierarchical_section_title: No. 27 Squadron RAF / History / Post-war service
caption_attribution_description: A British Panavia Tornado GR1 aircraft of No. 27 Squadron, Royal Air Force, in flight during "Air Fete '88", at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk (UK), on 28 May 1988. The "Air Fete" was NATO aircraft display hosted by the U.S. Air Force 513th Airborne Command and Control Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
context_page_description: No. 27 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operates the Boeing Chinook from RAF Odiham.
context_section_description: On 24 November 1947, the squadron reformed at RAF Oakington as a Transport unit equipped with Douglas Dakota transports.  It flew both routine scheduled transport routes and trained in glider towing, and took part in the Berlin Airlift in 1948–49.  It was disbanded on 10 November 1950. On 15 June 1953, No. 27 Squadron reformed at RAF Scampton as part of RAF Bomber Command, with Canberra bombers.  It took part in the Suez Crisis in 1956, and was disbanded at RAF Waddington on 31 December 1957.
  In April 1961, the squadron reformed at RAF Scampton as the first squadron to be equipped with the Avro Vulcan B2 V bomber and formed part of the UK nuclear deterrent strike force. The squadron's Vulcans were equipped with the Blue Steel one megaton stand-off bomb until 1969 when their eight aircraft were each re-equipped with a WE.177B laydown bomb of 450 kt yield. The squadron's role assigned to SACEUR in a low-level penetration role was tactical support for ground forces resisting a Soviet land attack into Western Europe by striking targets assigned by SACEUR, beyond the forward edge of the battlefield, and deep into enemy-held areas. By the end of 1971 the squadron had relinquished its nuclear delivery role, and stood down until in December 1973 it was reformed at RAF Scampton with the Vulcan B2 to operate in the Maritime Radar Reconnaissance role assigned to SACLANT.
  From 1973 to 1982 the squadron performed the duties of 'Strategic Reconnaissance' with onboard equipment to monitor the fall-out from air and ground-based nuclear tests being performed by emerging nuclear powers in the Indian sub-continent and SE Asia.  The squadron's Vulcan B2s were modified (and re-designated as SR2s) to carry underwing 'sniffer' and collection equipment to detect and collect samples of airborne contamination for later analysis at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) at Aldermaston.  The samples were collected by flying through the high altitude dust cloud of a ground-based test or the downwind contamination of the upper atmosphere after an air burst. The squadron disbanded again at Scampton in 1982.
  The squadron reformed again at RAF Marham in 1983 with twelve Tornado GR1 aircraft and eighteen WE.177 nuclear bombs, and once again assigned to SACEUR in 1984, the squadron's role was low-level penetration tactical support for ground forces resisting a Soviet land attack into Western Europe by striking targets beyond the forward edge of the battlefield. The squadron's allocation of eighteen WE.177 weapons was because of the greater carrying capacity of the Tornado, which could carry two weapons. The apparent mismatch between twelve Tornado aircraft and eighteen nuclear weapons was because RAF staff planners expected up to one third attrition of aircraft in the conventional phase, with sufficient aircraft held back in reserve to deliver the squadron's full stock of nuclear weapons if the conflict escalated to the use of tactical nuclear weapons. In September 1993, the squadron's Tornado aircraft and personnel moved to RAF Lossiemouth and took on the number plate of No. 12 Squadron which had recently disbanded at RAF Marham.
caption: A 27 Sqn Tornado GR1 in 1988.
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