BAC Strikemaster Gerry Farrell giving the Strikemasters the once over.

Two Strikemaster were held on standby at all times. If they were called out two more were brought up to readiness. There were usually eight planes available with twelve pilots and from "scramble" they could be down to the Yemeni border in 15mins. Their time over the target area would be about 45 mins.

Armament consisted of two 7.62mm FN machine guns with 1000 rounds of ammunition for harassing fire. They carried two either Pakistani or Spanish 500lb bombs one fused for airburst and one for ground burst. They also carried 16 Sura rockets.

Many of the Strikemasters were damaged with 12.7mm AAA fire and several were downed later in the war with SAM-7 missiles.