RAF

RAF Officers Finish Navy Course Under Coronavirus Restrictions For First Time

First RAF Weapon System Operators Graduate Royal Navy Tactical Command Course Since Start Of The Pandemic 29092020 CREDIT RAF

Four RAF weapons systems officers have graduated from a "demanding" Royal Navy course – the first to do so under COVID-19 restrictions.

The course is 16 weeks long and teaches the fundamentals of airborne navigation and tactical mission command.

It provides the students with a "world-class" foundation in the principle use of airborne systems and sensors to locate, identify and monitor targets helping them to direct and coordinate search and rescue missions.

The students were trained by 750 Naval Air Squadron at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose, Cornwall, a unit which also instructs the Royal Navy’s future helicopter observers in basic flying training.

The four, Flight Lieutenant Dave Miles and Flying Officers Alex Connor, Christian Sugden, and Dan Wilkes, are the third generation of RAF personnel to undertake the training at RNAS Culdrose.

They will now progress to an operational conversion unit to train on one of the RAF’s ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) platforms at either RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, or RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, north-east Scotland.

Cover image: The RAF graduates of the course (Picture: RAF).