The Ministry of Defence has announced that, in the coming days, the UK will deploy an additional four RAF Tornado GR4s to Gioia del Colle air base in Italy, primarily in the reconnaissance role to further support operations over Libya.The aircraft are in addition to 12 RAF Tornados already deployed at Gioia del Colle. This latest deployment is intended to bolster NATO's reconnaissance capability. Equipped with RAPTOR (Reconnaissance Airborne Pod for Tornado) pods, RAF Tornados can provide extremely detailed reconnaissance imagery over large areas.
The deployment will have no effect on operations in Afghanistan.
In an update on Libya operations, Major General Nick Pope, the Chief of the Defence Staff's Communications Officer, said:
