FOUNDATION TOUR
Your first tour will last approximately 24 months and could be at one of our two Control and Reporting Centres which are located at RAF Boulmer and at RAF Scampton, or at one of the many RAF airfields around the UK. You will consolidate your specialist training and develop post-graduate skills allowing you to achieve ‘Combat Ready’ status and deploy on operations.
YOUR CAREER PROSPECTS
You will join the RAF on an initial commission of 12 years and may be selected to continue your service on a pension earning commission of 20 years’ service or to age 40, whichever is the later, during this time. Promotion to the rank of Flight Lieutenant is on a time served/satisfactory service basis after 3½ years from completing IOT. Further promotion to Squadron Leader and above is by competitive selection.
ONGOING TRAINING/DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Subsequent tours of duty may see you being employed in a wide variety of areas, including:
- One of the other areas of the Air Operations (Systems) specialisation.
- Planning missions for the RAF’s varied aircraft and systems
- Co-ordinating and managing transport aircraft schedules
- Form part of the 3 person Mobile Air Ops Team (MAOT) providing radio communications and Support Helicopter support to forward Battle Groups and other agencies.
- As ‘Mission Crew’ on the E-3D ‘Sentry’ Airborne Early Warning aircraft based at RAF Waddington.
- Part of the UK’s deployable, ground based, command and control unit ‘Number 1 Air Control Centre’ located at RAF Scampton.
- Instructing ab initio and postgraduate students
- As a Ballistic Missile Early Warning’ Space Operator at RAF Fylingdales in North Yorkshire or the UK Space Operations Centre at RAF High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.
You may also be selected for advancement to higher management roles, responsible for leading large teams of fellow officers and airmen. Throughout your career, you should expect operational deployments (generally of up to, but not limited to, 6 months duration) to a range of locations worldwide, together with ad-hoc shorter detachments to such locations as Cyprus, Lithuania, Gibraltar, Canada, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and the USA. The RAF also has a variety of exchange opportunities which include instructing the US Marine Corps in Arizona; the US Air Force Space Command in Colorado and the Royal Norwegian Air Force.