Personnel numbers in the Royal Air Force

Officers of No 1 Squadron, RAF with SE5a biplanes at Clairmarais aerodrome, near Ypres, July 1918

This is a list of personnel numbers in the Royal Air Force, from its inception in 1918, up until the modern day. Royal Air Force staffing numbers have fluctuated with periodic demand, however, since the end of the Second World War, numbers have decreased steadily and the RAF itself has shrunk in terms of operating bases. Several schemes have been implemented during times of excess staffing to reduce numbers.

History

Several programmes were introduced over the life of the Royal Air Force with a view to either reducing, or increasing personnel in line with current threats, or loss of a perceived threat, such as after the First and Second World Wars. Other programmes were developed outside of conflict such as the Options for Change in 1990 (end of the Cold War),[1] and the Defence Costs Study (or Front Line First) in 1994.[2] Post First World War saw a huge reduction in staffing and aircraft, though recruitment did continue apace. One notable exception was the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) which was disbanded completely in 1920.[3] At Armistice Day in 1918, the fledgling Royal Air Force consisted of a combined personnel of 291,170, which was expected to be reduced to 60,000 by 1 October 1919.[4] In fact, by October 1919, the numbers had dropped to 58,000, increasing fears within the Royal Air Force that it would cease to be an independent air force, and be subsumed into either the Navy or the Army.[5] In 1925, the government announced plans to temporarily cease the expansion of the RAF, and it dropped in numbers between 1926 and 1927 from 33,500 to 33,009.[6]

In response to German re-armament, particularly that of the Luftwaffe, an expansion of the RAF was announced in May 1935, stating a near trebling of aircraft and staff by the end of the next financial year (31 March 1937), resulting in an additional 22,500 personnel.[7][8]

A re-assessment of necessary staffing after the end of the Cold War, prompted a Defence review called Options for Change. This scaled the Air Force at 75,000, having previously had a strength up to 1990 of 88,500. However, further cuts were implemented during 1993 which were not part of the original Options paper after natural wastage did not produce enough of a drop in numbers, and with the additional loss of one Tornado squadron in the meantime; estimates were recalculated to 70,000.[9] Large swathes of redundancies were served upon all three strands of the UK military structure in 1995. This saw at least 9,000 redundancies, of which, 7,500 were in the Royal Air Force alone.[10]

Full time personnel were offset in loss of numbers by the uplift of Reserve Personnel as per a government directive to increase the number of reservists.[11] This can be seen by the increase of reservists, of which the percentage of reservists expanded two and half times over between October 2013 and October 2021.[12]

Example personnel numbers

RAF personnel, Calshot, 1936; the RAF had just over 32,000 personnel
No. 640 Sqn at RAF Leconfield, December 1944. At this time, numbers of personnel were over one million
The Vulcan at RAF Waddington, 1982. Post the Falklands Conflict, the RAF had just over 89,000 people in service.
RAF 7 Force Protection Wing delivers training to support mass school testing in 2021. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, personnel numbered around 33,000
Date Numbers Notes Ref
November 1918 291,170 To reduce to around 60,000 by late 1919 [13][4]
April 1919 149,196 17,267 officers, 108,753 other ranks, the remainder were WRAF [14]
October 1919 58,000 [5]
January 1920 26,682 After the demobilisation, the strength of the RAF was one tenth of what it was at the Armistice [15]
1927 33,009[note 1] Down from 35,300 in 1926 [6]
1929 28,638 3,338 officers, 25,300 other ranks [16]
January 1934 30,381 3,334 officers, 25,170 other ranks, 1,877 apprentices and cadets [17]
May 1936 32,456 Increase during the expansion period [18]
September 1939 175,392 Around 118,000 estimated to be in all areas of operation apart from India [19][20]
April 1944 1,185,913 88,615 officers, 922,892 other ranks, 174,406 WRAF [14]
May 1945 1,079,835 [21]
1952 270,000 [22]
April 1958 210,000 A cut of 20,000 personnel from April 1957. [23]
1960 163,800 73,000 civilians [24]
1962 148,000 [22]
1970 108,800 15,400 civilians [24]
1976 96,300 [25]
September 1978 84,792 [26]
September 1979 87,392 [26]
1981 91,965 [27]
September 1982 89,254 [28]
April 1989 93,100 14,400 officers, 72,500 other ranks, 6,200 WRAF[note 2] [14]
July 1990 89,000 [1]
1993 70,000 [9]
April 1997 57,000 Planned reduction to 56,000 by 1999 [30]
2000 52,000 [31]
December 2004 48,900 Defence cuts estimated that a reduction of almost 8,000 to 41,000 by 2008 [32]
January 2018 36,960 [33]
January 2021 32,920 [33]
April 2022 33,320 The numbers do not consist of reservist personnel. The Defence in a Competitive Age paper from the UK Government expects the RAF to number 31,750. [34][35]

Notes

  1. ^ Not including those who were serving in India.[6]
  2. ^ In 1994, the WRAF was disbanded again, with most serving personnel moved into the RAF.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b Armitage 1998, p. 269.
  2. ^ Armitage 1998, p. 275.
  3. ^ Philpott 2006, p. 267.
  4. ^ a b Philpott 2006, p. 269.
  5. ^ a b Sweetman, John (July 1984). "Crucial Months for Survival: The Royal Air Force, 1918-19". Journal of Contemporary History. 19 (3). London: Sage Publications: 533. ISSN 0022-0094.
  6. ^ a b c Dawson, Geoffrey, ed. (7 March 1927). "Air Estimates". The Times. No. 44523. p. 9. ISSN 0140-0460.
  7. ^ Dawson, Geoffrey, ed. (23 May 1935). "No Risks with Security; RAF to be nearly trebled". The Times. No. 47071. Column D. p. 8. ISSN 0140-0460.
  8. ^ Holman, Brett (April 2011). "The Air Panic of 1935: British Press Opinion between Disarmament and Rearmament". Journal of Contemporary History. 46 (2): 296. doi:10.1177/0022009410392407. S2CID 143844858.
  9. ^ a b Evans, Michael (22 October 1993). "RAF men face sack in morning's post". The Times. No. 64781. p. 1. ISSN 0140-0460.
  10. ^ Leathley, Arthur (17 December 1994). "9,000 face redundancy to meet defence cuts". The Times. No. 65140. p. 2. ISSN 0140-0460.
  11. ^ "Armed forces plans criticised as reservist recruitment stalls". BBC News. 13 November 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  12. ^ Harding, Megan (11 January 2022). "UK defence personnel statistics". House of Commons Research Briefings (7930). London: House of Commons: 19. OCLC 1029845664.
  13. ^ Fowler et al. 1994, p. 7.
  14. ^ a b c Armitage 1998, p. 277.
  15. ^ Air Ministry - Pamphlet 152 - Twenty Five Years Of The RAF. London: Air Ministry. 1943. p. 6. OCLC 1043091902.
  16. ^ Philpott 2006, p. 270.
  17. ^ Sprigg, T Stanhope (1935). The Royal Air Force ; its organization, duties and prospects as a profession or a trade. Bath: Isaac Pitman & Sons. p. 3. OCLC 980692677.
  18. ^ Dawson, Geoffrey, ed. (21 August 1936). "Expansion of the RAF". The Times. No. 47459. p. 10. ISSN 0140-0460.
  19. ^ Wynn, Humphrey (September 1976). "The Royal Air Force: Its Origin and History, 1918-1970". Aerospace Historian. 23 (3). Air Force Historical Foundation: 162. ISSN 0001-9364.
  20. ^ Dawson, Geoffrey, ed. (3 March 1939). "Air Estimates". The Times. No. 48244. p. 9. ISSN 0140-0460.
  21. ^ Bowyer, Chaz (1984). Royal Air Force handbook, 1939-1945. London: I. Allan. p. 123. ISBN 0711013187.
  22. ^ a b Fowler et al. 1994, p. 100.
  23. ^ Haley, William, ed. (26 April 1957). "R.A.F. To Be Cut 20,000 In Year". The Times. No. 53825. p. 6. ISSN 0140-0460.
  24. ^ a b Miller, T (January 1973). "Military Airfields and Rural Planning". Town Planning Review. 44 (1). Liverpool: University Press: 38. doi:10.3828/tpr.44.1.t302106j77w02883. ISSN 0041-0020. OCLC 664563272.
  25. ^ Wynn, Humphrey (September 1976). "The Royal Air Force: Its Origin and History, 1918-1970". Aerospace Historian. 23 (3). Air Force Historical Foundation: 166. ISSN 0001-9364.
  26. ^ a b Stanhope, Henry (16 November 1979). "Forces' pay rises boost recruitment". The Times. No. 60476. p. 4. ISSN 0140-0460.
  27. ^ Horseman, Martin, ed. (March 1982). "UK regular forces at five-year peak of personnel strength". Armed Forces. Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 46. ISSN 0142-4696.
  28. ^ Horseman, Martin, ed. (March 1983). "UK Services' personnel numbers decline". Armed Forces. Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 89. ISSN 0142-4696.
  29. ^ Stothard, Peter, ed. (25 February 1994). "WRAF will fly into the past". The Times. No. 64888. p. 9. ISSN 0140-0460.
  30. ^ Stothard, Peter, ed. (3 March 1997). "The Facts". The Times. No. 65827. p. 6. ISSN 0140-0460.
  31. ^ Evans, Michael (16 July 1998). "RAF seeks rising stars to join the ranks". The Times. No. 66255. p. 9. ISSN 0140-0460.
  32. ^ Evans, Michael (10 December 2004). "Top brass among the first to go in £250m cull of RAF". The Times. No. 68255. p. 26. ISSN 0140-0460.
  33. ^ a b "Quarterly service personnel statistics 1 January 2021". GOV.UK. 9 December 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  34. ^ Harding, Megan. "UK defence personnel statistics" (PDF). researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk. p. 6. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  35. ^ "Quarterly service personnel statistics 1 April 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 4 July 2022.

Sources

  • Armitage, M. J. (1998). The Royal Air Force : an illustrated history. London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 1860198511.
  • Fowler, Simon; Elliott, Peter; Conyers Nesbit, Roy; Goulter, Christina (1994). RAF records in the PRO. London: PRO. ISBN 1873162146.
  • Philpott, Ian M. (2006). The Royal Air Force : an encyclopaedia of the inter-war years. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 1844153916.

Read other articles:

Hipotesis eosit

Karyota Ignicoccus hospitalis (dan symbiote Nanoarchaeum equitans) Klasifikasi ilmiah (tanpa takson): Archaea atau Arkarya (tanpa takson): Karyota Lake et al. 1988[1][2] Domain & Regnum Domain - Eukaryota Regnum - Eocyta Lake et al. 1984 Phylum - Crenarchaeota Phylum - (Thaumarchaeota) Phylum - (Lokiarchaeota) Sinonim proto-eukaryotic group Karyotes Hipotesis eosit (Inggris: eocyte hypothesiscode: en is deprecated ) adalah klasifikasi biologi yang menunjukkan eukariota be...

 

North Germanic languages

Languages of the Nordic countries North GermanicNordicScandinavianEthnicityNorth Germanic peoplesGeographicdistributionNorthern EuropeLinguistic classificationIndo-EuropeanGermanicNorth GermanicProto-languageProto-NorseSubdivisions East Scandinavian West Scandinavian Gutnish ISO 639-5gmqGlottolognort3160North Germanic-speaking lands Continental Scandinavian languages:   Danish   Norwegian   Swedish Insular Nordic languages:   Faroese   Iceland...

 

Aku Cinta Dia

Aku Cinta DiaAlbum studio karya ChrisyeDirilisFebruari 1986[1]DirekamPertengahan 1985–Awal 1986StudioMusica, JakartaGenre Pop rock n' roll Durasi45:4533:53 (versi piringan hitam)LabelMusica StudiosProduser Chrisye Kronologi Chrisye Sendiri (1985)Sendiri1985 Aku Cinta Dia (1986) Hip Hip Hura (1986)Hip Hip Hura1986 Stiker label piringan hitamStiker label Aku Cinta Dia yang ditujukan sebagai promo radio Aku Cinta Dia adalah album musik pop tahun 1986 dari penyanyi pop legendaris Ch...

John Archibald Campbell

US Supreme Court justice from 1853 to 1861 For other people named John Campbell, see John Campbell (disambiguation). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: John Archibald Campbell – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) John Arch...

 

العلاقات التركية الجنوب إفريقية

العلاقات التركية الجنوب أفريقية تركيا جنوب أفريقيا   تركيا   جنوب أفريقيا تعديل مصدري - تعديل   العلاقات التركية الجنوب أفريقية هي العلاقات الثنائية التي تجمع بين تركيا وجنوب أفريقيا.[1][2][3][4][5] مقارنة بين البلدين هذه مقارنة عامة ومرجعية لل...

 

كلية ستانيسلاس في باريس

هذه المقالة تحتاج للمزيد من الوصلات للمقالات الأخرى للمساعدة في ترابط مقالات الموسوعة. فضلًا ساعد في تحسين هذه المقالة بإضافة وصلات إلى المقالات المتعلقة بها الموجودة في النص الحالي. (يوليو 2020) كلية ستانيسلاس في باريس معلومات التأسيس 1804  الموقع الجغرافي إحداثيات 48°50′41�...

Santa Barbara Daily Sound

Former daily newspaper in Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara Daily SoundTypeDaily NewspaperFormatTabloidOwner(s)NODROG PublicationsPublisherJeramy GordonFoundedMarch 23, 2006Headquarters411 E. Canon Perdido St. #2 Santa Barbara, CA 93101 United StatesWebsitethedailysound.com The Santa Barbara Daily Sound was a daily newspaper in Santa Barbara, California that was published Tuesday through Saturday. After discontinuing publication of its print edition in late June 2012, publisher Je...

 

Blood Song

1982 American slasher film directed by Alan J. Levi This article is about the 1982 film. For other uses, see Blood (disambiguation) § Songs. Blood SongDirected byAlan J. LeviWritten byFrank Avianca James Fargo Lenny MontanaStory byJoseph M. Shink[1] George Hart[1]Produced byFrank Avianca Lenny Montana Lee ShroutStarring Frankie Avalon Donna Wilkes Richard Jaeckel Antoinette Bower CinematographyStephen PoseyEdited byAnn MillsMusic byMonty Turner Robert J. WalshProductionc...

 

Ship of Theseus

Thought experiment about identity over time This article is about the thought experiment. For the film, see Ship of Theseus (film). The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's Paradox, is a thought experiment about whether an object is the same object after having had all of its original components replaced. In Greek mythology, Theseus, mythical king and founder of the city Athens, rescued the children of Athens from King Minos after slaying the minotaur and then escaped onto a ship going to...

Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests

Biome Extent of temperate broadleaf and mixed forests An example of temperate broadleaf and mixed forest in La Mauricie National Park, Quebec. Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions.[1] These forests are richest and most distinctive in central China and eastern North America, with some other glob...

 

新罕布什尔州

坐标：43°11′38″N 71°34′21″W / 43.1938516°N 71.5723953°W / 43.1938516; -71.5723953 此條目需要补充更多来源。 (2017年5月21日)请协助補充多方面可靠来源以改善这篇条目，无法查证的内容可能會因為异议提出而被移除。致使用者：请搜索一下条目的标题（来源搜索：新罕布什尔州 — 网页、新闻、书籍、学术、图像），以检查网络上是否存在该主题的更多可靠来源...

 

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at the 2003 Pan American Games

Pan American Game Sporting event delegationSaint Vincent and the Grenadines at the2003 Pan American GamesIOC codeVINNOCThe St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Olympic CommitteeWebsitewww.svgnoc.orgin Santo Domingo1–17 August 2003MedalsRanked 32nd Gold 0 Silver 0 Bronze 0 Total 0 Pan American Games appearances (overview)199119951999200320072011201520192023 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines participated at the 2003 Pan American Games, held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from 1 to 17...

ČAFC Prague

Football clubČAFC PragueFull nameČAFC PragueFounded1899GroundK vodě 2Prague 10 – ZáběhliceManagerZdeněk HerinkLeaguePrague Championship2022–236th Home colours ČAFC Prague is a Czech football club located in Prague-Záběhlice. It currently plays in the Prague Championship, which is in the fifth tier of the Czech football system. It is one of the oldest football clubs in the country. ČAFC played in the highest division of football in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s, taking part in...

 

Divisi Sandakan

Peta Lokasi Divisi Sandakan. Divisi Sandakan adalah sebuah divisi administratif di Sabah, Malaysia. Divisi tersebut membentang diagonal dari pesisir timur laut Sabah sampai kawasan tengah negara bagian tersebut. Dengan wilayah seluas 28,205 kilometer persegi, divisi tersebut meliputi 38.3% teritorial Sabah, dan merupakan divisi terbesar dari lima divisi administratif di Singapura. Divisi tersebut juga memiliki sekitar 19.4% dari total populasi Sabah. Kota utamanya adalah Sandakan, Beluran, Ki...

 

United States Army Installation Management Command

U.S. Army's primary provider of installation management support This article uses bare URLs, which are uninformative and vulnerable to link rot. Please consider converting them to full citations to ensure the article remains verifiable and maintains a consistent citation style. Several templates and tools are available to assist in formatting, such as reFill (documentation) and Citation bot (documentation). (August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) United States Army Installat...

Mean curvature

Differential geometry measure In mathematics, the mean curvature H {\displaystyle H} of a surface S {\displaystyle S} is an extrinsic measure of curvature that comes from differential geometry and that locally describes the curvature of an embedded surface in some ambient space such as Euclidean space. The concept was used by Sophie Germain in her work on elasticity theory.[1][2] Jean Baptiste Marie Meusnier used it in 1776, in his studies of minimal surfaces. It is important ...

 

Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art

School of applied art in Mumbai, India This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Sir J. J. Institute of Applied ArtEstablished1958; 66 years ago (1958...

 

Tofacitinib

Medication TofacitinibClinical dataTrade namesXeljanz, Jaquinus, Tofacinix, OthersOther namesCP-690550AHFS/Drugs.comMonographMedlinePlusa613025License data US DailyMed: Tofacitinib Pregnancycategory AU: D[1] Routes ofadministrationBy mouthDrug classJanus kinase (JAK) inhibitorATC codeL04AF01 (WHO) Legal statusLegal status AU: S4 (Prescription only)[3][4] CA: ℞-only[5] UK: POM (Prescription only)[6][7] U...

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Leibniz ist eine Weiterleitung auf diesen Artikel. Weitere Bedeutungen sind unter Leibniz (Begriffsklärung) aufgeführt. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz,Porträt von Christoph Bernhard Francke, um 1700; Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig Leibniz-Denkmal, 2009 anlässlich 600 Jahre Alma Mater lipsiensis in den Neuen Campus der Universität Leipzig umgesetzt Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (* 21. Junijul. / 1. Juli 1646greg. in Leipzig, Kurfürstentum Sachsen; † 14. November 1716 i...

 

User talk:Marchjuly/Archives/2017/August

This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. Archives 2023;Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2022;Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2021;Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2020;Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2019;Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2018;Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct ...