British Military Aviation in 1970

January
The Royal Air Force (RAF) begin to use the Air Weapons Installation at
Decimomannu in Sardinia.

15 February
Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, who had been Air Officer Commanding
in Charge of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, dies aged
87.

28 March
Following a successful military coup d’etat in Libya on 1 September 1969,
the RAF withdraw from the airfield and associated ranges at El Adem in
Libya at the request of the new government.

24 July
Sultan Said bin Taimur of Oman, deposed by his son, Sultan Qaboos bin
Said, is flown to Bahrain in an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy of the Royal
Air Force (RAF) detachment at RAF Muharraq.

August
A detachment from No.72 Squadron (Westland Wessex) returns to Northern
Ireland to support the security forces (Operation Marginal). This commitment
would become a permanent one for the squadron throughout the 1970s. From
1972, detachments of No.72 and No.33 Squadrons (Westland/Aerospatiale
Puma) would form the Royal Air Force (RAF) Helicopter Detachment Northern
Ireland.

September – November
The Royal Air Force (RAF) mount a medical airlift to Jordan following
a Jordanian Army offensive against Palestinian guerillas.

November
The Royal Air Force (RAF) participate in an emergency airlift of food
and medical supplies to East Pakistan following the onslaught of a cyclone.

December
Operation Breakfast/Intragon: No.78 Squadron is deployed from Sharjah
to support the Trucial Oman Scouts and the Special Air Service (SAS) during
a ten-day internal security operation in the mountains of the Musandem
Peninsula in Oman.