AA34102 Blackburn Buccaneer S2B, XW530, No. 12 Squadron RAF, Honington, 1979

                       

                             

When the last aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal was retired in 1978, 62 of the 84 Buccaneers built for the Royal Navy were 

 then passed to the RAF for further service. The RAF also ordered an additional 26 additional 26 aircraft to supplement these. 

The first RAF squadron to re-equip with the Buccaneer was No. 12 Squadron at RAF Honington, Suffolk, which formed on the 

1st October 1969 initially with the second-hand  Buccaneer S.2As, which were later supplemented by the S.2B which had the rotary 

bomb bay replaced by an extra-capacity fuel tank and could be equipped with the Martel anti-ship guided missiles.  XW530 was one of the
 
‘new-build’ Buccaneer S.2Bs built in 1970 and served with No. 12 Squadron at RAF Honington, Suffolk, until the squadron moved to 

Lossiemouth, Scotland in 1980. It took part i the 1991 ;Gulf War’ following which the type was withdrawn from use in December 1993. 

Today XW530 can be sen preserved outside the “Buccaneer Service Station” at Elgin, near Lossiemouth, Morayshire.