2015-2016

World Wide UK UK Regular Military Forces* Presence Presence
1 April 2016
10
930
10
1,010
137,150 9,200
1,800
390
280 50
Iraq/Syria
Op SHADER
* The UK Regular Forces which comprises trained and untrained personnel and excludes Gurkhas, Full Time Reserve Service
personnel and mobilised reservists.
Total 151,000
UK 137,150
Europe (Exc. UK) 9,200
Asia (Exc. Middle East) 280
North Africa/Middle East 1,800
Sub Saharan Africa 390
680
250
Op SHADER is the UK contribution to the global
coalition to support the Iraqi Government and the
moderate Syrian Opposition to defeat Daesh.
Air Package
990
North America 930
Central America/Caribbean 10
South America 10
South Atlantic 1,010
Oceania 50
Unallocated 170
of which the following were located...
UK involvement in the Counter-Daesh campaign
commenced in August 2014 with UK humanitarian
aid drops onto the Sinjar Mountains in Iraq to
provide relief to displaced Yazidis. In September
2014, following a request for military support from
the Iraqi government, the UK began strike operations
against Daesh in Iraq.
On 2 December 2015 House of Commons vote
signalled 2,990 its support for the UK to begin striking at
Daesh targets in Syria. The UK had previously only
5,240conducted Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaisance
flights 160 over Syria. To support this increase in the Area
of Operations the UK surged its air capability by a
further two Tornado GR4s (bringing the total to 10
GR4s) and six Typhoon jets. 150 Making us one of the
few nations able to deploy such advanced strike and
Intelligence, 260 Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and
Reconnaissance (ISTAR) capabilities.
The Voyager aircraft has continued to provide
air to air refuelling support to coalition air assets.
Additionally the UK has used its air lift capability for the
transportation of gifted Coalition equipment to Iraq
Security Forces (ISF) including Kurdish Peshmerga.
Canada 250 Cyprus 2,990
The initial air package committed to Op SHADER As at 30 May 2016, the UK had conducted 775 strikes
United States 680 Saudi Arabia 160
consisted of six Tornado GR4 aircraft operating out in Iraq and 44 in Syria, and has flown in excess of
of Cyprus. We
Falkland
subsequently
Islands
increased our efforts
990
to 2500 Kenya combat missions.
260
match coalition Germany requirements as they evolved and 5,240 Brunei 150
as our resources became available. This included
(includes personnel deployed and those stationed at Training the location) Support Source: MOD Defence Statistics
the deployment of an additional two Tornado GR4s,
bringing the total to eight, and additional assets such Since November 2014 the UK has continued to provide
as Airseeker (Rivet Joint), E3-D Sentry, and REAPER training and advisory support to the Counter-Daesh
remotely-piloted aircraft.
campaign through the Iraqi Building Partner Capacity
(BPC) programme. Much of this training is centred on
22 Annual Report and Accounts 2015-2016