page_title: No. 15 Squadron RAF
section_title: Service as a nuclear force
hierarchical_section_title: No. 15 Squadron RAF / History / Service as a nuclear force
caption_attribution_description: English: Blackburn Buccaneer S2B XW544 'H' of No. 15 Squadron RAF in 1977
context_page_description: Number 15 Squadron, sometimes written as No. XV Squadron, was a squadron of the Royal Air Force. It most recently operated the Panavia Tornado GR4 from RAF Lossiemouth as No. XV Squadron. It was the RAF's Operational Conversion Unit for the Tornado GR4 which taught pilots how to fly the aircraft and what tactics to use to best exploit the performance of their aircraft and its weapons.
context_section_description: In 1970, the Squadron was finally reformed with the Blackburn Buccaneer S.2B at RAF Honington, shortly afterwards moving to RAF Laarbruch in Germany. From 1971 their task at RAF Laarbruch, assigned to SACEUR, was the support of the army in a European land battle, first in a conventional role, and later in a tactical nuclear delivery role, if required. RAF planning staff expected  the squadron's twelve Buccaneer S2B aircraft to suffer attrition of one third their strength, leaving sufficient survivors, with those held back in reserve from the conventional phase, to deliver the squadron's allocation of eighteen WE.177 nuclear bombs.
  In 1983, the squadron exchanged their twelve Buccaneer S2s for the same number of Tornado GR.1s, for use in a similar role from early 1984. Because of the UK's commitment to SACEUR, this involved the use of the "Designate" process whereby a Tornado squadron was formed and worked up at Honington and once operational moved to Laarbruch and assumed the No.15 Squadron identity from the Buccaneer unit. This made the squadron the first Tornado unit in Germany - a force that would grow to eight squadrons - and remained in the nuclear delivery role for SACEUR with an increased allocation of 18 weapons owing to the Tornado's ability to carry two bombs. The squadron's nuclear delivery role assigned to SACEUR continued at this strength until 1991, when it disbanded.
caption: Blackburn Buccaneer S2B of No. 15 Squadron in 1977
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