The Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Tornado aircraft squadron, including crews and engineers, has returned to RAF Marham in the UK after completing operation Herrick in Afghanistan.

During their deployment in Afghanistan, the Tornado crew have flown 500 sorties, amounting to nearly 1,700 flying hours for ground-based forces.

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The sorties also included around 100 ground close air support requests where the Tornado GR4s were scrambled within 30 minutes of the request for assistance.

The RAF uses its Tornado fighter jets to provide close air support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Powered by two RB199 turbofan engines, the Tornado GR4 has a maximum speed of Mach 1.3 and can reach a maximum altitude of 50,000ft.

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