Above; Beechcraft Shadow R1 of 14 Squadron based at RAF Waddington from Ryan Kirkpatrick "RAF Waddington Spotting". The Shadow is part of the Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) group of systems.
According to published sources RAF Shadow R.1 aircraft are still flying surveillance flights from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus over Gaza, primarily to assist in locating hostages taken during Hamas’s October 2023 attack. These flights have been ongoing since December 2023, have totaled hundreds of missions, and have continued through the summer of 2025 as recently reported on 'The Aviationist' blog.
A written'Parliamentary answer' published on 24 March 2025 confirmed that the UK has been flying unarmed surveillance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean, including Gaza, with a mandate strictly focused on hostage recovery (UK Parliament). Various independent defence reporting (UK Defence Journal blog) noted that Shadow R.1 aircraft continue operations from RAF Akrotiri toward Gaza, with the same limited mandate to “secure the release of hostages”. According to Wiki and other analyses, there have been:
Over 250 flights from December 2023 to June 2024;
And by March 2025, more than 500 flights had taken place.
A Times report in early August 2025 revealed the UK Ministry of Defence outsourced some flights to Sierra Nevada Corporation (US contractor). The move followed maintenance or deployment issues affecting the UK’s Shadow fleet; none of the eight RAF Shadow R.1s were stationed at Akrotiri at that time.
The 'Shadow' was developed from the Beechcraft King Air by Raytheon to improve intelligence gathering and the RAF's aircraft - based at Waddington - carry a bank of sophisticated electro-optical and electronic sensors with satellite communications links for inflight data transfer.
Permission
at http://www.defenceimagery.mod.uk for reuse under the OGL (Open Government License).
Screen captures from Ryan Kirkpatrick Waddington Spotter video (April 2025) of Shadow R.1 coded ZZ 507.
Screen captures from Ryan Kirkpatrick Waddington Spotter video (April 2025) of Shadow R.1 coded ZZ 507.
