Tornado pilots in the Gulf have underone training at RAF Valley on Anglesey

Group Captain Jon Fynes was based at RAF Valley on Anglesey for eight years before being deployed to the Gulf.

For the past two months air force crews and their engineers have been at the Ali Al-Salem base in central Kuwait preparing for a possible attack on Iraq.

Mr Fynes said the low-flying exercises pilots on his staff had conducted over north and mid Wales was proving invaluable.

He said: "It's absolutely crucial to what they will do here - we do a mixture of learning tactics during combat - low flying - and some of the flying over here will be low.

'Operations'

"The procedures and the training system that we have is vital to be able to do an operation like this."

Nine Tornado bombers used to patrol the no-fly zone in southern Iraq are serviced at the base.

One of the technicians is Carmarthen-born flight engineer Hywel Jones.

He has had just one day off in the past eight weeks.

15 days: Flight Engineer Hywel Jones

He said: "We are working very long hours, sometimes up to 15 hours per day."

Senior Engineering Officer Simon Ellard, originally from Tredegar in south Wales, said crews were dealing with more operations as the military build-up in the area continued.

"There's certainly a different expectation but we are used to carry out operations from here.

"Even what are now viewed as routine operations still involve aircraft flying over Iraq, the crews putting themselves in danger and enforcing the southern no-fly zones."