Tracing its lineage back to the formation of the Royal Flying Corps at Farnborough in May 1912, No.II(AC) Squadron is the most senior squadron in the current Royal Air Force. It also has the honour of being the first fixed-wing aircraft unit anywhere in the world. The first British unit to cross the Channel to operate in France at the start of the Great War, ‘Shiny Two’ became specialist in the role of aerial Army cooperation flying, and aerial reconnaissance, something its pilots perfected throughout its long history. 

The Unit served throughout the Cold War period, operating a variety of classic aircraft types, including the Hawker Hunter, McDonnell Douglas Phantom and SEPECAT Jaguar. It began an impressive 27-year association with the Panavia Tornado from the end of 1988, only broken when they exchanged their aircraft for Eurofighter Typhoons. During that period, the most strikingly presented Tornados were those benefitting from a temporary winter camouflage scheme in support of their deployment to Norway on Arctic operations.

 These combined defence and readiness exercises saw various aircraft types from different nations regularly coming together to test their capabilities in meeting the threat posed by Eastern Bloc forces in the high north of Europe, a show of strength to deter any thoughts of aggression. 

The GR.1A variant of the Tornado was a dedicated reconnaissance platform, made up of 16 converted GR.1 airframes and 14 newly constructed aircraft.