Royal Marine Commando Set To Lead Fast Jet Squadron

Green beret. Royal Marine Commando. Fast jet pilot. Harrier pilot. F-35B Lightning pilot.

Now add ‘Fast jet squadron Commanding Officer’ to the long list of descriptors you might use for Lieutenant Colonel Mike Carty RM.

He’s the first Royal Marine to command any fast jet formation, RAF 617 Squadron - arguably the most famous squadron in the history of UK military aviation: the Dambusters.

It’s one of two front-line units flying the most advanced aircraft in the UK’s arsenal, the fifth-generation F-35B Lightning stealth strike fighter/bomber.

He takes the ‘control column’ of the Dambusters after their first overseas deployment not on a carrier.

A detachment from 617 spent a month in Iceland on NATO air policing duties – a world away from its Norfolk home at RAF Marham, near King’s Lynn, or the deck of a Queen Elizabeth-class carrier.

As with its younger sister formation, 809 Naval Air Squadron, the Dambusters draws air and ground personnel roughly equally from the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm – so much so that they think of themselves as a combined, united ‘Lightning Force’.

To read more, visit Royal Navy's website.