UK has deployed its newly acquired Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint signal intelligence aircraft to provide operational and tactical level intelli...
The aircraft is deployed to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, from were it can fly to the crisis area in short notice. The humanitarian aid air drops is also carried out from this RAF base.
This is the first operational deployment of RC-135 by UK, which was delivered in November 2013. The Royal Air Force( RAF) has also deployed Tornado fighter jets fitted with Litening III reconnaissance pods from RAF Marham to support the humanitarian operations.
RAF is using two C-130 Hercules airlifters to air drop UK Aid provided by the Department for International Development(DFID). The UK has so far committed more than £13 million in new assistance in response to the crisis in Iraq.
DFID has so far chartered six cargo flights into the Iraqi city of Erbil, delivering aid to people cut off from their homes and living in makeshift camps across the Dahuk region of northern Iraq.
In addition to DFID’s six chartered aid flights, RAF has made seven successful aid air drops over Mount Sinjar including water containers, solar lamps and shelter kits.
UK aid flights depart from Dubai, the location of DFID’s aid stockpile in the region, and the East Midlands, which is close to its main UK-based aid warehouse in Kemble, Gloucestershire.
There are now approximately half a million displaced people in the Dahuk area, which represents almost half of the total original population. Many of the displaced Iraqis arriving in the region have travelled for days without food and water in high temperatures and face the prospect of living in makeshift refugee camps as winter approaches.
