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Leuchars airshow debut for squadron colours

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The official colours of the first squadron of Eurofighter Typhoon jets to arrive at RAF Leuchars will be presented during the airshow in September.

The welcome news comes as uncertainty continues over possible cuts to RAF operations and locations as part of the defence review, and as the Fife base expects to eventually have three squadrons in place to secure its long-term future.

It has been confirmed that the first Leuchars Typhoons will fly with No 6 Squadron, which is being officially reformed on September 6.

Less than a week later, by which time at least some of the aircraft will have arrived at the Fife base, Air Officer Scotland and Station Commander at Leuchars Air Commodore Harry Atkinson will be presented with the No 6 Squadron colours.

The Tornado fighters at RAF Leuchars, now down to a single squadron performing quick reaction alert (QRA), are to be phased out completely by March.

Both types of aircraft will fly from the base while the handover is completed and the F3 Tornado is taken out of service.

It was previously stated that when the new Typhoon squadrons are fully established at the base, the total number of service personnel will drop slightly to 1500.

There will also be around 200 civilians and a number of contractors supporting various services such as catering, retail and leisure.

The Typhoon squadrons will each have around 16 to 18 pilots, and some 100 ground crew.

At first they will be carrying out air defence work, but over time they will be made capable of multi-role activity including bombing and using pods for reconnaissance.

At that stage they will be able to be deployed from Leuchars to conflict areas around the world.

A leaked Government document revealed on Friday that grounding the RAF’s Tornado jet fleet would save £7.5 billion in defence spending.

Taking the aircraft out of service would mean the loss of half of Britain’s total fastjet fleet.

However, it would save billions more than retiring the Harrier jet, according to the document drawn up under the strategic defence spending review (SDSR) and obtained by a national newspaper.

Withdrawing the Harrier, which is used by the RAF and the Royal Navy, would create savings of around £1 billion.

The analysis carried out by the Ministry of Defence makes a direct comparison of “through-life savings” that can be achieved from axing either the Harrier GR9 or Tornado GR4 fleets, it was reported.

Both options are understood to include savings from closing some bases.

The MoD insisted the SDSR is considering a wide range of options to help meet the Treasury’s demand for overall cost savings of between 10 and 20%.