99 Squadron Now

“So a chapter in Royal Air Force history closed.  99 Squadron, after a long and noble history, is no more. The Britannia era provided a fitting finale the this distinguished record.”

- from “Each Tenacious”, 1st edition, p305.

Twenty five years later, the first of 4 Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, leased to meet the Royal Air Force's short term strategic airlifter requirement, arrived in May 2001. No. 99 Squadron was reformed earlier in the year to operate the aircraft in the strategic airlift role at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

The Squadron’s done a lot in the time since then, some of it in the public arena and some not.  There follows an account of the part the Squadron played in the rescue of eight Russian submariners whose minisub had become tangled in nets.  Click here.

Thanks to the C/O 99 Squadron W/Cdr John Gladston for permission to publish the following article which first appeared in the Squadron Newsletter “Ninety-Nine” - and to Flt/ Lt. Andy McIntyre for taking the trouble to write it in the first place.  Now all we need are some photos to illustrate the article - big hint, guys!