As a young Tornado navigator in the 1980s I was part of a truly vast, 310,000-strong military machine. The RAF’s Tornado force alone, which would eventually spearhead the defence of Saudi Arabia and subsequent attacks on Iraq, numbered around 430 bomber and fighter aircraft. The total size of the RAF was astonishing – nearly 94,000 personnel and 1,800 front-line and training aircraft.3 To give this some context, in 2020 the RAF had around 32,000 personnel and some 570 aircraft.
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