Tomorrow’s weather today
The Mobile Meteorological Unit provides critical frontline Meteorology support to operational, strategic and safety decisions. You might struggle to even bang in the first tent peg on an operation if the ground is frozen or flooded. The success of every sortie, every training flight and every logistical move depends on knowing the weather.
Meteorologists and engineers from across the civilian Met Office serve as RAF Sponsored Reservists in the MMU. When required they can be actively deployed as part of the military in times of war, crisis, peace-keeping operations and exercises in the UK or overseas.
They provide year-round support for major UK operations and exercises: from a full-sized met office on a major deployed airbase to a single meteorologist embedded within a unit’s ops room.
Setting up MMU satellite communications at Camp Bastion on Op HERRICK early in 2007. © Met Office/Crown.
Radiosonde (weather balloon) launch in Kandahar on Op HERRICK. © Met Office/Crown.
Meteorology has been intertwined with the military since the early days of science. The Mobile Meteorology Unit can trace its history back to just after the D-Day invasion when small mobile teams were formed from Met Office staff serving in the RAFVR: they deployed into France to support temporary airfields. While the first recorded use of the name ‘Mobile Met Unit’ was in 1953, the modern MMU came into being in response to the 1961 Kuwait Crisis.
The MMU Engineering team is constantly developing and testing new systems to enable them to keep pace with the rapidly evolving developments in IT and communications. While some use is made of military coms, MMU Engineering have developed a range of satellite-based communications systems. Meaning that at many locations, MMU may have the best comms tools. Display and production systems have evolved from ‘mobile’ Outstation Display Systems that needed three or four people to lift them, to hand held weather sensors and satellite-based systems that can fit into a briefcase.
Radiation fog in Bosnia’s valleys where freezing temperatures and high winds can also cause operational problems for aircraft as far away as the heel of Italy. © Alamy/Alen Ajan.
Air Mail
This article has been adapted from the October 2022 edition of Air Mail magazine which looked at RAF meteorology. To receive Air Mail, which is the RAF Association’s quarterly members’ magazine and looks at all aspects of the RAF’s work, now and since it was founded, become a member and opt for Air Mail as part of your membership.
