RAF Patch Airfield Engineering 5001 Squadron Afghanistan TRF

RAF Patch Royal Air Force 5001 Squadron Expeditionary Airfield Engineering Construction Afghanistan TRF Flash 2009 Velcro Embroidered on desert camouflage twill background cut edge 50mm by 50mm two inches by two inches.

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5001 Squadron was activated in June 1953 at RAF Kasfareet, Suez in November 1951 on the redesignation of 1 Squadron of 5355 Wing under Royal Air Force Airfield Construction Branch at the same time as the Wings 2 Squadron at RAF Abu Seir was renamed 5002 Squadron.

The Squadron was redesignated 5001 Airfield Construction Light Squadron in May 1954 and relocated to RAF El Adem in August 1955 before moving to RAF Idris Tripoli in September 1955. 5001 Airfield Construction Light Squadron relocated to RAF Akrotiri Cyprus in April 1959. The Squadron established a large long term detachment at RAF El Adem Libya in 1961

5001 ACL Squadron undertook a wide variety of construction tasks in Cyprus and El Adem and deployed for projects at Tabriz and Babol Sar Iran and deployed a detachment to construct a large earth landing strip at Bomba on the Libyan coast under Exercise Egg Flip in early 1962. The Squadron sent out a small detachment to establish a landing strip at Kufra in the far south of Libya as an emergency diversion for aircraft unable to land at RAF El Adem.

The Squadron deployed a large detachment to the Far East in 1963 at short notice to undertake work at Kuching in Sarawak and Labuan and Tawau in North Borneo in support of RAF operations following the Indonesian confrontation in Borneo. The Squadron relocated to RAF Seletar Singapore in September 1963. 5001 Airfield Construction Light Squadron was disbanded on 1 April 1966 at the same time as Airfield Construction Branch with airfield construction and maintenance duties realocated to the Royal Engineers.

5001 Squadron was reactivated at RAF Stafford in 1999 assigned to 85 Wing to provide airfield engineering construction and maintenance support for deployed RAF operations. The Squadron was relocated to RAF Wittering in November 2007 assigned to the newly activated 42 Expeditionary Support ES Wing as one of several Air Combat Service Support Units forming the RAFs Expeditionary Engineering and Logistics Force the A4 Force at RAF Wittering to provide expeditionary logistics and engineering capability to support Air Power operations worldwide. The Squadron is tasked to provide and maintain airfield facilities for Royal Air Force Royal Navy and Army Aviation expeditionary deployments.

The Squadrons Operations and Support Flights constructs Temporary Working Environment TWE buildings and Rapid Environmental Hangars for Fast Jet Fixed Wing and Rotary aircraft at temporary Expeditionary bases and facilities including in Afghanistan the Middle East Falkland Islands and Cyprus. The Squadron also installs Portable Aircraft Arrestor Gear PAAG on Expeditionary bases to allow Fast Jet aircraft to rapidly slow down including a PAAG deployed at RAF Northolt to support Typhoon aircraft during alert defensive operations during the 2012 London Olympics. 5001 Squadrons Support Engineering Flight SEF provides engineering support to RAF Wittering including vehicle support to 2 MT Motor Transport Squadron with the capacity to deal with specialist vehicles fuel bowsers military tankers generators and specialist lifting equipment both at RAF Wittering and deployed and operational Expeditionary locations. SEF also provides Station Workshops and the maintenance of ground support equipment to ensure aircraft remain flying.

This patch dates from 2009.