Conversion units and operational conversion units (OCUs) were training units of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(RAF).

History

With the introduction of new heavy bombers, the four-engined

Short Stirling The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the war (the earlier Handley ...

Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster, commonly known as the Lancaster Bomber, is a British World War II, Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to ...

, and

Handley Page Halifax The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its or ...

, the Royal Air Force introduced heavy conversion units (HCU). These HCUs began forming in late 1941, to qualify crews trained on medium bombers to operate the heavy bombers before final posting to the operational squadrons. Some of the HCUs were involved in bombing operations over Germany. After the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the role of the HCUs was taken over by the operational conversion units (OCUs). Although the units had nominal bases, different flights and individual aircraft usually were detached nearer the operational bases. RAF OCUs are training units that prepare aircrew for operations on a particular type or types of aircraft or roles. Some OCUs have a shadow, or reserve, squadron designation, which is used if the unit has a war role.

Current RAF OCUs

F-35 Lightning –

RAF Marham Royal Air Force Marham, commonly abbreviated RAF Marham is a Royal Air Force station near the village of Marham in the county of Norfolk, East Anglia. It is home to No. 138 Expeditionary Air Wing (138 EAW) and, as such, is one of the RAF's ' ...

* 207 Squadron Typhoon –

RAF Coningsby Royal Air Force Coningsby or RAF Coningsby , is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located south-west of Horncastle, and north-west of Boston, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is a Main Operating Base of the RAF and h ...

* 29 Squadron Hawk T.2 –

RAF Valley Royal Air Force Valley or more simply RAF Valley () is a Royal Air Force station on the island of Anglesey, Wales, and which is also used as Anglesey Airport. It provides both basic and advanced fast-jet training using the Beechcraft Texan T. ...

* 4 Squadron Support helicopter ( Puma and Chinook) –

RAF Benson Royal Air Force Benson or RAF Benson is a Royal Air Force (RAF) List of Royal Air Force stations, station located at Benson, Oxfordshire, Benson, near Wallingford, Oxfordshire, Wallingford, in South Oxfordshire, England. It is a front-line st ...

* 28 Squadron Air Mobility ( Atlas and C-17) –

RAF Brize Norton Royal Air Force Brize Norton or RAF Brize Norton is the largest List of Royal Air Force stations, station of the Royal Air Force. Situated in Oxfordshire, about west north-west of London, it is close to the village of Brize Norton and the tow ...

* 24 Squadron ISR ( Wedgetail,

Poseidon Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...

) –

RAF Lossiemouth Royal Air Force Lossiemouth or more commonly RAF Lossiemouth is a military airfield located on the western edge of the town of Lossiemouth in Moray, north-east Scotland. Lossiemouth is one of the largest and busiest fast-jet stations in the ...

* 42 Squadron ISR (

Reaper A reaper is a farm implement that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass, especially wheat. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used ...

, Protector, Rivet Joint and

Shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...

) –

RAF Waddington Royal Air Force Waddington , commonly known as RAF Waddington, and informally known by its nickname 'Waddo' is a Royal Air Force station located beside the village of Waddington, south of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, in England. The station is th ...

* 54 Squadron Tutor –

RAF Wittering Royal Air Force Wittering or more simply RAF Wittering is a Royal Air Force station within the unitary authority area of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and the unitary authority area of North Northamptonshire. Although Stamford in Lincolnshire ...

* 115 Squadron Some aircraft types operated by a single squadron, which includes most transport aircraft, and most ISTAR aircraft, are not big enough to need a dedicated OCU squadron for their training requirements; they may only have a few at any time. Therefore, smaller squadrons also incorporate training facilities to allow them to process aircrew onto their aircraft type. Some roles, such as ISTAR, require more rear crew for the aircraft, such as

weapon systems officer A Weapon Systems Officer (WSO), nicknamed "Wizzo", is an air flight officer directly involved in all air operations and weapon systems of a military aircraft. Historically, aircrew duties in military aircraft were highly specialised and rigi ...

s (WSOs) and weapon systems operators (WSOps) – their training can be more generalised, and this is carried out by 54 Squadron at

. This reduces the training requirement on the individual ISTAR squadrons, by providing aircrew who require only aircraft conversion training when they reach their squadrons. Pilots are trained directly onto their aircraft type by the frontline squadrons using training "flights". An example of this is the OCU flight of 24 Squadron, which trains new Atlas and C-17 aircrew onto the aircraft. 115 Squadron trains flying instructors for all three branches of the British Armed Forces. 207 Squadron trains both RAF and Royal Navy pilots on the F-35 Lightning. OCUs are monitored by the RAF's

Central Flying School The Central Flying School (CFS) is the Royal Air Force's primary institution for the training of military flying instructors. Established in 1912 at the Upavon Aerodrome, it is the longest existing flying training school in the world. The sch ...

to maintain training standards. Training is delivered by qualified flying instructors (QFIs) and qualified weapons instructors, and frontline squadrons also have qualified individuals to deliver continual and refresher training after the OCU. OCUs generally also provide training for those aircrew selected to become QFIs on an aircraft type – an example would be the now disbanded 208(R) Squadron, which previously trained aircrew for the now disbanded 100 Squadron, QFIs for 208(R), and provided refresher training for aircrew joining the RAF aerobatic team, the

Red Arrows The Red Arrows, officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force (RAF) based at RAF Waddington. The team was formed in late 1964 as an all-Royal Air Force team, replacing several un ...

History

Current RAF OCUs

List of conversion units

Additional

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography