RAF Support Command

RAF Support Command
Crest of RAF Support Command
Active	1973-1994
Branch	Royal Air Force
Role	Logistical and maintenance support
Headquarters	RAF Brampton
Motto(s)	Ut Aquilae Volent (That Eagles May Fly)

Support Command was a command of the Royal Air Force.

It was formed on 31 August 1973 by the renaming of RAF Maintenance Command, with No. 90 (Signals) Group being added to it. Its responsibilities included all logistical and maintenance support requirements of the RAF. Among its first stations assigned may have been RAF Gan, transferred from Far East Air Force. It was renamed as RAF Support Command, and its role further increased, on 13 June 1977 when it absorbed Training Command, making it additionally responsible for all RAF ground and aircrew training.

In the 1980s the bunker at RAF Holmpton was converted to form a new Emergency War Headquarters for RAF Support Command.

In 1994 the Command was split up, with many of its functions merging with those of the RAF Personnel Management Centre to form RAF Personnel and Training Command, and others being hived off into RAF Logistics Command.

Air Officers Commanding-in-Chief

The following officers have held the appointment of Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief RAF Support Command:

• 31 Aug 1973 - Air Marshal Sir Reginald Harland
• 13 Jun 1977 - Air Marshal Sir Rex Roe
• 30 Aug 1978 - Air Marshal Sir Keith Williamson
• 3 May 1980 - Air Marshal Sir John Gingell
• 27 Apr 1981 - Air Marshal Sir Michael Beavis
• 15 Feb 1984 - Air Marshal Sir David Harcourt-Smith
• 2 Jan 1986 - Air Marshal Sir John Sutton
• 5 Apr 1989 - Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon
• 1991 - Air Chief Marshal Sir John Thomson
• 5 Oct 1992 - Air Chief Marshal Sir John Willis

Further reading

• Jackson, Brendan. "Logistic support in the Royal Air Force." The RUSI Journal 137, no. 6 (1992): 38-43.