Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force was founded on April 1, 1918, by the merger of the British Army's Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Navy's Royal Naval Air Service, becoming the world's first independent air force distinct from army or naval command, and rose to global prominence for its central role in defending Britain during the 1940 Battle of Britain, when RAF Fighter Command's Hurricane and Spitfire squadrons repelled the Luftwaffe's attempt to achieve air superiority ahead of a planned German invasion. Prime Minister Winston Churchill's tribute to the RAF's pilots during that battle, that never was so much owed by so many to so few, cemented the service's central place in British national memory of World War II, alongside its subsequent strategic bombing campaign against Germany and its role in the Battle of the Atlantic through Coastal Command's anti-submarine operations. In the postwar era the RAF maintained Britain's independent nuclear deterrent through the V-bomber force before that role transferred to Royal Navy submarines, and the service has continued to operate fighter, bomber, transport and reconnaissance aircraft in conflicts from the 1982 Falklands War to the Gulf War and subsequent operations over Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. The RAF remains one of the world's most capable and historically significant air forces, organized today around a modern fleet including the Typhoon and F-35 combat aircraft.