RAF Strike Command

Strike Command
Strike Command Badge
Active	30 April 1968–1 April 2007
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Headquarters	RAF High Wycombe
Motto(s)	Defend and Strike

The Royal Air Force's Strike Command was the military formation which controlled the majority of the United Kingdom's bomber and fighter aircraft from 1968 until 2007 when it merged with Personnel and Training Command to form the single Air Command. It latterly consisted of two formations - No. 1 Group RAF and No. 2 Group RAF. The last Commander-in-Chief was Air Chief Marshal Sir Joe French.

Strike Command was formed on 30 April 1968 by the merger of Bomber Command and Fighter Command, which became No. 1 Group and No. 11 Group respectively. Signals Command was absorbed on 1 January 1969,Coastal Command was absorbed on 28 November 1969 and Air Support Command (formerly Transport Command) was absorbed on 1 September 1972.

In 1975, the Command acquired a NATO title, Commander-in-Chief United Kingdom Air Forces - UKAIR. UKAIR was fell under NATO's Allied Command Europe in Mons in Belgium. In case of war with the Warsaw Pact the command would have commanded all Royal Air Force units in the United Kingdom as well as the US Air Force's Third Air Force based at RAF Mildenhall with its subordinate wings and squadrons. Reinforcements coming from the continental United States, as well as units transitioning to other European fronts, would have also come under UKAIR.