‘DAMBUSTERS’ 617 SQUADRON
Chris Aaron speaks to Wing Commander John Butcher of 617 Squadron about preparations for the F-35B Lightning deployment to HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2021.
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ate August in Norfolk. The night sky is racked by the shuddering roar and green glow of F-35B aircraft, jointly owned by the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, landing at RAF Marham. Three USAF B-2 Spirits land at RAF Fairford later that night, and F-35B Lightnings from the RAF’s 617 Squadron (Sqn) conduct flying integration training with them the next day, the first time any other country’s aircraft have operated alongside the B-2s. Group Captain (Gp Capt) Richard Yates, chief of staff at United Kingdom (UK) Air Battle Staff, later states: ’This flying integration builds on the work of Exercise Lightning Dawn in Cyprus and the visit of RAF F-35B Lightnings to Italy in June’. Despite this first for the RAF, the atmosphere on base is relaxed during the drive over to 617 Sqn’s buildings, past the newly opened facilities of 207 Sqn Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) with its six aircraft and state-of-the-art simulators, into the as-yet unfinished car park, and in through the rabbit warren of corridors, to Wing Commander (Wg Cdr) John Butcher’s office, his windows overlooking the trees and humped shelters of the squadron’s nine F-35B Lightnings. Dambusters reborn 617 Sqn ‘The Dambusters’ was stood up as an operational squadron at a ceremony in Washington, DC on April 18, 2018. General Stephen Wilson, vice chief of staff for the US Air Force said at the time, ‘The Dambusters will be flying the F-35 Lightning, a fifth-generation air
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HMS Prince of Wales
fighter ready to deter and win. We will take it to the skies together again’. Four of the squadron’s aircraft took to the skies from US Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort for the 10-hour transatlantic flight to RAF Marham on June 6, 2018, and six months later the squadron achieved Initial Operating Capability (IOC) Land on Jan. 10, 2019. Meanwhile, on Sept. 28, 2018, two F-35Bs flown by Royal Navy and RAF pilots based at Beaufort had touched down on the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth as the aircraft carrier exercised on the eastern seaboard of the United States. That landing marked the beginning of two months of trials, which also included establishing the limits of weather conditions for safe landing on board the UK’s Queen Elizabeth-class carriers. The next milestone for the squadron’s operational development was the six-week deployment to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on May 23, 2019. ‘Lightning Dawn’ involved tactical flight training and live-fire exercises, but most importantly, it proved the logistical capability of the squadron, with its technicians, support, and operations staff, to operate effectively from a remote base. During Lightning Dawn, the squadron carried out its first combat operation on June 16, providing armed overwatch to ground forces over Syria and Iraq as part of Operation Shader. On the way back to Marham, two of the squadron’s aircraft stopped off at the Italian Air Force base Amendola, to take part in drills with US and Italian F-35As. Part of this exercise was to practise use of the F-35’s Multi-function Advanced Data Link (MADL) – the system that enables situational
