Increased activity for training exercise warns RAF

Local resident living near to the UK's largest Royal Air Force base have been warned of an increase in activity, as a long-planned training activity launches across the country.

Exercise Agile Warrior 26 is designed to rigorously test the RAF's ability to protect the country when under direct attack from an adversary, and began this week.

RAF Brize Norton, in west Oxfordshire, warned local residents that the training may lead to an increase in activity around the base - and was not related to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The two-week exercise will see air and ground units across multiple RAF stations train to ensure the RAF remains ready to "fight tonight" in defence of the nation.

Speaking ahead of the exercise, chief of the air staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Harv Smyth said: "Here at home, we are seeing regular incursions into our sovereign waters and airspace by hostile agents that don't play by our rules."

"We see regular examples of espionage and sabotage that seek to affect our economy, undermine our democracy, and disrupt our very way of life," he said.

"It's through this lens, protecting our homeland, that we prepare for Exercise Agile Warrior - what we do, and how we do it, really matters."

The RAF said the exercise would test its "ongoing ability" to defend the UK an ensure it can "continue protecting the country no matter what challenges it faces".

During the training, personnel from across the air force will face situations simulating the effects of cyber-attacks, long-range precision strike threats, and persistent attempts to disrupt UK air operations.

Forces will also practice various scenarios, including rapid dispersal and base defence, the RAF said.

Brize Norton is the largest RAF Station with an estimated 5,800 service personnel based there, alongside 300 civilian staff and 1,200 contractors.

It is also home to a mixed fleet of aircraft and the RAF's Air Mobility Force, as well as multiple lodger and reserve units.

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