Post-Cold War
With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the RAF's focus returned to expeditionary air power. Since 1990, the RAF has been involved in several large-scale operations, including the 1991 Gulf War, the 1999 Kosovo War, the 2001 War in Afghanistan, the 2003 invasion and war in Iraq, the 2011 intervention in Libya and from 2014 onwards has been involved in the war against the Islamic State.
The RAF began conducting Remotely-piloted Air System (RPAS) operations in 2004, with No. 1115 Flight carrying out missions in Afghanistan and Iraq with the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator. Initially embedded with the United States Air Force, the RAF formed its own RPAS squadron in 2007 when No. 39 Squadron was stood up as a General Atomics MQ-9A Reaper unit at Creech AFB, Nevada.
The RAF's 90th anniversary was commemorated on 1 April 2008 by a flypast of the RAF's Aerobatic Display Team the Red Arrows and four Eurofighter Typhoons along the River Thames, in a straight line from just south of London City Airport Tower Bridge, the London Eye, the RAF Memorial and (at 13.00) the Ministry of Defence building.
Four major defence reviews have been conducted since the end of the Cold War: the 1990 Options for Change, the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, the 2003 Delivering Security in a Changing World and the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). All four defence reviews have resulted in steady reductions in manpower and numbers of aircraft, especially combat aircraft such as fast-jets. As part of the latest 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft was cancelled due to overspending and missing deadlines. Other reductions saw total manpower reduced by 5,000 personnel to a trained strength of 33,000 and the early retirement of the Joint Force Harrier aircraft, the BAE Harrier GR7/GR9.
In recent years, fighter aircraft on Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) have been increasingly required to scramble in response to Russian Air Force aircraft approaching British airspace. On 24 January 2014, in the Houses of Parliament, Conservative MP and Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Andrew Robathan, announced that the RAF's QRA force had been scrambled almost thirty times in the last three years: eleven times during 2010, ten times during 2011 and eight times during 2012. RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and RAF Lossiemouth in Moray both provide QRA aircraft, and scramble their Typhoons within minutes to meet or intercept aircraft which give cause for concern. Lossiemouth generally covers the northern sector of UK airspace, while Coningsby covers the southern sector. Typhoon pilot Flight Lieutenant Noel Rees describes how QRA duty works. "At the start of the scaled QRA response, civilian air traffic controllers might see on their screens an aircraft behaving erratically, not responding to their radio calls, or note that it's transmitting a distress signal through its transponder. Rather than scramble Typhoons at the first hint of something abnormal, a controller has the option to put them on a higher level of alert, 'a call to cockpit'. In this scenario the pilot races to the hardened aircraft shelter and does everything short of starting his engines".
On 4 October 2015, a final stand-down saw the end of more than 70 years of RAF Search and Rescue provision in the UK. The RAF and Royal Navy's Westland Sea King fleets, after over 30 years of service, were retired. A civilian contractor, Bristow Helicopters, took over responsibility for UK Search and Rescue, under a Private Finance Initiative with newly purchased Sikorsky S-92 and AgustaWestland AW189 aircraft. The new contract means that all UK SAR coverage is now provided by Bristow aircraft.
In 2018, the RAF's vision of a future constellation of imagery satellites was initiated through the launch of the Carbonite-2 technology demonstrator. The 100 kg Carbonite-2 uses commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components to deliver high-quality imagery and 3D video footage from space. The Royal Air Force celebrated its 100th anniversary on 1 April 2018. It marked the occasion on 10 July 2018 with a flypast over London consisting of 103 aircraft.
Between March 2020 and 2022, the RAF assisted with the response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom as part of Operation Rescript. This saw the service provide repatriation flights and aeromedical evacuations of COVID-19 patients, drivers and call-handlers to support ambulance services and medics to assist with the staffing of hospitals, testing units and vaccination centres. Under Operation Broadshare, the RAF has also been involved with COVID-19 relief operations overseas, repatriating stranded nationals and delivering medical supplies and vaccines to British Overseas Territories and military installations.
The UK's 20-year long operations in Afghanistan came to an end in August 2021, seeing the largest airlift since the Berlin Blockade take place. As part of Operation Pitting, the RAF helped evacuate over 15,000 people in two weeks. Between April and May 2023, the RAF helped evacuate over 2,300 people from Sudan due to the 2023 Sudan conflict as part of Operation Polarbear.
In April 2024, Typhoon FGR4s operating from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, engaged and destroyed Iranian drones over Iraqi and Syrian airspace during Iran's strikes against Israel.
On 26 and 27 March 2025, RAF Puma helicopters marked their retirement from service with a flypast of locations with a historical link to Puma including RAF Odiham, Andover, Middle Wallop Flying Station, MOD Boscombe Down, Thiepval Barracks, PJHQ, RAF Halton, RAF High Wycombe, RAF Benson, RAF Cosford, RAF Shawbury as well as other places across the UK.
In June 2025, pro-Palestinian activists broke into Brize Norton Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire, vandalising and tampering with aircraft. Such actions constitute a national security risk. The ensuing arrests garnered media attention, and the group Palestine Action, which claimed responsibility for the break-in, was later proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government. In addition, a decision was made to begin a 'security review' of military bases across the United Kingdom.
During the 2026 Iran war, the RAF flew sorties in defence of British allies, including Cyprus and other Middle Eastern allies. This operation marked the RAF's first use of the F-35B to shoot-down drones in combat. The UK-Qatar joint Typhoon squadron was also involved in these sorties. RAF Regiment gunners also operated ground-based air defence against Iranian drones.
On 9 May 2026, a specialist UK military team executed a first-of-its-kind emergency humanitarian mission, parachuting onto Tristan da Cunha to treat a British national with suspected hantavirus. A local island resident who disembarked from the virus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius. Oxygen supplies at the island's hospital had reached a critical level. The territory normally operates with just a two-person medical team. Six paratroopers and two military clinicians from the 16 Air Assault Brigade launched the mission. Because of the specialised medical care required, an intensive care nurse and an intensive care doctor were strapped to paratroopers for tandem jumps. The team flew 6,788 km from RAF Brize Norton to Ascension Island. They then flew over 3,000 km to the drop zone, supported by mid-air refuelling from an RAF Voyager. Medics battled winds exceeding 25 mph to land safely on the island's rocky golf course. Simultaneously, an RAF A400M aircraft air-dropped 3.3 tonnes of vital medical aid and oxygen.
