The Royal Air Force Regiment is part of the Royal Air Force and functions as a specialist corps. Founded by Royal Warrant in 1942, the Corps carries out soldiering tasks relating to the delivery of air power. Examples of such tasks are non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO), recovery of downed aircrew, and in-depth defence of airfields by way of aggressively patrolling and actively seeking out infiltrators in a large area surrounding airfields. In addition the RAF Regiment provides Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) to the British Army in the Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) role, and provides flight size commitment to the Special Forces Support Group.
An RAF Humber LRC in Middelburg, Netherlands, during Operation Infatuate, November 1944
RAF Regiment Otter at Prkos Airfield in Yugoslavia 1945
A recruiting poster from the 1950s
RAF Regiment in 1988 on tour in Belize with Rapier missile system
Tactical Air Control Party
The Tactical Air Control Party, commonly abbreviated TACP, is a small team of military personnel who provide coordination between aircraft and ground forces when providing close air support.
USAF Tactical Air Control Party operators using a SOFLAM during training