Jets from RAF Lossiemouth have completed bombing raids on IS targets in Syria for the first time.
Late yesterday afternoon, two Eurofighter Typhoons from the Moray airfield were deployed from their base in Cyprus on a combat mission.
They were accompanied by two Tornado GR4 jets, who were also stationed at RAF Akrotiri.
The Typhoon planes took off from Lossiemouth at 8am on Thursday morning, and arrived at the Cypriot base that afternoon.
An RAF Airbus A400M tactical transport aircraft was deployed alongside the fighter jets, with approximately 100 ground staff travelling to help service them.
Crews spent the better part of a day preparing the aircraft for conflict, before they launched into action at about 4pm yesterday UK time.
A former RAF engineer advised that it was likely there would be more joint operations launched over the coming days.
He said: “This is almost like the Typhoons getting their feet wet, I’d expect there to be two or three more missions like this over the next week.
“The Tornado crews will accompany the Typhoon pilots for a while because there is just the one person at the cockpit of the Typhoon.
“And the Typhoons will be bombed up for ground attacks, there would be no other reason for them to accompany the Tornadoes other than to drop Paveway IV bombs.”
The expert analyst added: “The Tornadoes might have gone in just to help them a bit, to point out the target and see if the Typhoons experience any issues.”
The mission came as Prime Minister David Cameron maintained that UK war planes could help to bring about a political settlement in Syria. Overnight between Thursday and Friday, Tornado GR4 fighter jets from RAF Akrotiri flew in missions over Syria and Iraq.
Two of the jets took part in an armed reconnaissance patrol over eastern Syria, gathering intelligence on terrorist activity.
The other two patrolled over western Iraq, where they provided close air support to Iraqi forces engaged in combat with Daesh in and around Ramadi.
The Ministry of Defence said that a terrorist sniper team which opened fire on Iraqi troops was “silenced by a direct hit from a Paveway IV guided bomb”.
Immediately following parliament’s decision to escalate military action in Syria on Wednesday night, Tornado GR4 aircraft
launched strikes on several oilfields in the east of Syria.