No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group

No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group is a group within the Royal Air Force, currently based at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

Originally formed in 1943, during the Second World War it formed part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force (2TAF) and was known as No. 83 (Composite) Group. It provided support to Allied forces during the liberation of Europe. After being disbanded in 1946 it was re-established as No. 83 Group in 1952 to lead the 2TAF's units in Germany, until it disbanded again in 1958.

On 1 April 2006 it was reformed as No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group Headquarters, to lead UK air operations in the Middle East. Activities include Operations Kipion (the UK's maritime presence in the Middle East) and Operation Shader (the UK's part of the military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)).

No. 83 (Composite) Group
No. 83 (Composite) Group was formed on 1 April 1943 within the Second Tactical Air Force of the Royal Air Force. By the eve of the D-Day landings in June 1944, No. 83 Group had grown to a strength of twenty-nine fighter, ground-attack and reconnaissance squadrons and four artillery observation squadrons, grouped into ten wings. At the time of Operation Market Garden in September 1944, the group consisted of the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) 39 Reconnaissance Wing, 121, 122, 123 and 143 Wings flying Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers, 125 Wing with Supermarine Spitfire fighters, and the RCAF 126 and 127 Wings also flying Spitfires. No. 401 (Ram) Squadron with Spitfires was part of the group from 1943. The Group headquarters was at RAF Eindhoven from 1 October 1944 to 10 April 1945. The group was absorbed into No. 84 Group RAF on 21 April 1946.

No. 83 Group
No. 83 Group was re-formed on 9 July 1952 within the Second Tactical Air Force in Germany to control its southern area. By 1956, the group controlled five wings with a total of fourteen squadrons equipped with Hawker Hunter day fighters, de Havilland Venom fighter-bombers, Supermarine Swift fighter-reconnaissance aircraft, Gloster Meteor night-fighters and English Electric Canberra interdiction and reconnaissance aircraft. It was disbanded again on 16 June 1958.

Current operations
No. 83 Group was re-formed on 1 April 2006 from the UK Air Component Headquarters in the Middle East. It comprised No. 901 Expeditionary Air Wing in the Middle East and Bahrain and No. 902 Expeditionary Air Wing at Seeb in Oman. Since that time it has controlled a varying number of Expeditionary Air Wings. No. 83 Group is based at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

The Air Officer Commanding No. 83 Group is the Air Component Commander in the Middle East. He is responsible to the Permanent Joint Headquarters for the command and control of all RAF units engaged in Operations Kipion and Shader.

It is currently in charge of:

901 Expeditionary Air Wing 902 Expeditionary Air Wing 903 Expeditionary Air Wing 906 Expeditionary Air Wing
 * Provides support to No. 83 EAG and home to Joint Force Communication and Information Systems (Middle East).
 * RAFO Musannah - 2 x AgustaWestland Merlin HM.2.
 * RAF Akrotiri - Panavia Tornado GR4, Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4, Sentinel R1, Sentry AEW1, Lockheed C-130J Hercules & Airbus Voyager.
 * Al Minhad Air Base - Unknown aircraft.

1943 to 1946

 * Air Vice Marshal W F Dickson, from 21 March 1943
 * AVM H Broadhurst, from 25 March 1944
 * AVM T C Traill, from September 1945

1952 to 1958

 * Air Commodore, later acting Air Vice-Marshal R B Lees, 1952 to 1955.
 * AVM H A V Hogan, 1955 to 1958.

2006 to present

 * Air Commodore B M North, 2006
 * Air Commodore C A Bairsto, mid-2006 – Jan 2007
 * Air Commodore P Oborn
 * Air Commodore M J Harwood, – 22 Aug 08
 * Air Commodore A S Barmby, 22 Aug 08 – 22 May 2009
 * Air Commodore S D Atha, 22 May 2009 – date unknown
 * Air Commodore K B McCann
 * Air Commodore A D Stevenson
 * Air Commodore S D Forward
 * Air Commodore P J Beach
 * Air Commodore A Gillespie
 * Air Commodore M Sampson
 * Air Commodore John J Stringer (July 2016 onwards)