Royal Air Force and replacement by the F-35, the RAF Lossiemouth-based 15 (Reserve) Squadron (the Tornado Operational Conversion Unit) was disbanded in March 2017. Lightning: On 23 November 2015 it was announced that a total of 138 F-35Bs will be ordered. 617 (The Dambusters) Squadron officially reformed on 18 April 2018 as an RAF Lightning Squadron. The first four aircraft arrived at RAF Marham on 7 June 2018. The Sentry AEW1, based at RAF Waddington, provides airborne early warning to detect incoming enemy aircraft and to co-ordinate the aerial battlefield. The Sentinel R1 (formally known as ASTOR – Airborne STand-Off Radar) provides a
RAF Carlisle The station was unusual within the RAF as there were no other ranks or NCOs stationed at RAF Carlisle, only a small cadre of 12 - 15 RAF Supply Branch officers who controlled a civilian workforce of storekeepers and warehousemen. RAF Carlisle was just one in a chain of several Maintenance Units forming RAF Support Command, later to become RAF Logistics Command in 1994. Logistics Command was faced with a contracting airforce that had less airfields, less aircraft and less personnel. The logical answer was a reduction in the number of maintenance units and 14 MU was the farthest flung