Flying aces from RAF Lossiemouth are training in the Arabian desert to prepare for future operations in hot countries abroad.
Eight Typhoon aircraft from 6 Squadron have touched down in Oman, on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, to begin a fortnight of “intensive” drills.
As well as the pilots, 250 military personnel from the Moray airfield have flown over to assist with the sessions.
While temperatures in Lossiemouth peaked at 13 degrees yesterday, the average temperature in Oman in October is 30 degrees.
And it is that difference in weather conditions that will prove especially useful to the airmen as they train for missions in similarly hot countries.
Flying in clear conditions over the deserts of Oman will allow the squadron to hone skills and capabilities that cannot be practised in Scotland.
Speaking from the sun-bleached sand of the Asian nation, Officer Commanding 6 Squadron, Wing Commander Billy Cooper, explained the logic behind the scheme.
Wg Cdr Cooper said: “What is different for us here is we can be assured of reliable weather, and that means we can fly twelve sorties every day in conditions representative of operations.
“Availability of airspace is good and the ranges are well suited for our sortie profiles.
“We can practice our strafe attacks and perfect our precision bombing hitting pin-point targets on the ground.”
Earlier this year, Typhoon pilots from 6 Squadron expanded their skills during the largest air combat exercise in the world.
At the Red Flag event in Las Vegas, the crews took on the role of “aggressors” during a war games exercise against American F-22 Raptor fighter jets.
Wg Cdr Cooper said the simulations undertaken during the three-week detachment sought to replicate the threats and defences posed by targets in real life.
Typhoon jets from RAF Lossiemouth have been taking part in strikes against the Islamic State terror group in Syria and Iraq since the end of 2015.
RAF pilots destroyed 17 enemy targets in the space of a day last month.
Air Chief Marshal, Sir Stephen Hillier, praised the “immense effort” made to counter Dash forces in the middle-east, and said that “tempo would continue”.