British Military Aviation in 1961

February
The tri-Service and Royal Air Force (RAF) commands in the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula are renamed:

• Middle East Command is renamed Near East Command, with the Middle East Air Force becoming the Near East Air Force.
• British Forces Arabian Peninsula is renamed Middle East Command, with Air Forces Arabian Peninsula becoming Air Forces Middle East.

March-April
Aircraft of RAF Transport Command and Air Forces Middle East drop food to famine-stricken civilians in Kenya.

May
The responsibility for training RAF Thor Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile crews is transferred from the United States Air Force (USAF) to RAF Bomber Command.

1 May
RAF Fighter Command is assigned to the North Atlantic Treaties Organisation (NATO) air defence system. Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Fighter Command, Air Marshal Sir Hector McGregor assumed the additional title of Commander United Kingdom Air Defence Region.

June
A Deputy Director of Operational Requirements Space is appointed under the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Operations). The first incumbent of this post was Group Captain A.H. Hewitt.

20-21 June
The first non-stop flight between the United Kingdom and Australia is made by an Avro Vulcan of No.617 Squadron, captained by Squadron Leader M.G. Beavis. The aircraft covered a distance of 11,500 miles in 20 hours 3 minutes, achieving an average speed of 573mph. It was refuelled in the air over Cyprus, Karachi and Singapore.

1 July
Operation Vantage: following Iraqi claims on its oil-rich neighbour Kuwait, the threat of invasion prompts the ruler of Kuwait to request British military support. Between 1 and 6 July, 7,000 men and 720 tons of material were flown into the Persian Gulf area from airfields in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Aden and Kenya. Two squadrons of RAF Hawker Hunter ground-attack aircraft were also despatched to Kuwait, English Electric Canberra squadrons from RAF Germany were concentrated in the Persian Gulf, and aircraft from the 'V-force' were held at readiness in Malta. The operation successfully deterred any aggression, and British forces were gradually withdrawn.

1 October
Operation Tana Flood: aircraft of RAF Transport Command and Air Forces Middle East begin dropping food to communities isolated by floods in Kenya. Large-scale operations, which were later extended to Somalia, continued until January 1962. In total, approximately 6,000,000 pounds of food was dropped.

14 October
Aircraft from the 'V-force', four Avro Vulcans of No.27 Squadron and four Vulcans of No.83 Squadron, participated in a United States national air defence exercise (Exercise Skyshield) for the first time.

2 November
Operation Sky Help: following the devastation of much of British Honduras by Hurricane 'Hattie', RAF Transport Command begins to ferry supplies to Kingston in Jamaica, for onward transmission to British Honduras. Transport Command and Coastal Command aircraft introduced a shuttle service between Kingston and Belize.

5 December
RAF Bomber Command holds its first Micky Finn Command-wide no-notice readiness and dispersal exercise. During the course of the exercise, the V-force was required to disperse to its designated wartime dispersal airfields and assume a war posture. Micky Finn exercises were conducted annually throughout the 1960s.