Following calls for government to come clean over role in US air force unit, MoD says such UK personnel are ‘effectively operating as foreign troops’

Fresh questions have been raised over British military being embedded with US forces after a joint US-UK defence memo provided details of RAF crews assigned to an American unit conducting controversial drone strikes.

The memo covers RAF attachments to the US air force’s (USAF) 432nd unit based at Creech in the Nevada desert, one of the main hubs for drone strikes against Isis in Iraq and Syria as well as targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

The legal charity Reprieve, which obtained the memo of understanding between the US and British defence departments under a freedom of information request, called for ministers to come clean about the UK’s role in the drone programme.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD), in a letter to Reprieve in November, said “there are currently no RAF personnel embedded within operational USAF combat squadrons”.

The MoD response in the letter was disingenuous. While there may have been no RAF crews embedded with the 432nd in November, they have been embedded since 2008 and that while there may have been a gap in November, they are still there now.

The MoD confirmed in a statement on Wednesday evening that a small contingent of RAF staff are still embedded but insisted that, while operational matters were for the US, UK personnel would not engage in actions that would be in breach of UK or international law.

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There is international debate about the legality of US drone strikes: the US claims that it is covered by its war against terrorism, in particular against al-Qaida in Pakistan. There is no such cover for the UK as it is not at war with either Pakistan or Yemen, so such strikes would be illegal.

Strikes against Syria would also be problematic, given parliament voted in 2013 against military action.

The memo of understanding signed in 2008 covers the embedding of RAF crew at Creech. The US has been desperately short of crew to meet the expansion in drone operations and has looked to the RAF to help fill gaps.

There are an estimated 4,000 personnel in total, mainly American, based at Creech, about 500 of them pilots and about 500 sensor operators.

The memo says: “The total of UK personnel eligible to fill positions within the 432nd wing will be 66.” The document covers a vacancy for a pilot to fly a Predator drone and for seven sensor operators, who engage in surveillance and identifying potential targets, and for 14 pilots for Reaper drones and 14 sensor operators. The postings were for up to three years.

The figure of 66 is a maximum and the numbers have fluctuated since 2008, with only a small number there at present.

The memo describes the duties of an RAF pilot with the 432nd as: conducts “worldwide operations” that include reconnaissance and “determines viable targets and strikes those targets in conjunction with the combined air operations centre rules of engagement but always adhering to the legal framework for the operation in question”.

The assigned personnel are described as “a gift of services to fulfil US air force operational requirements”. According to the memo, the British MoD says it would continue to pay the RAF personnel during their time in the US as well as meeting their expenses.

The RAF crews assigned to the USAF are separate from RAF 39 Squadron, which has been based at Creech since 2007 and which also flies UK Reapers from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.

The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, was forced on Monday to make a Commons statement after it was revealed that British pilots embedded with US forces were engaged in air strikes in Syria in defiance of the 2013 parliamentary vote rejecting military intervention. A cross-party group of MPs and peers are also to investigate the practice of embedding, in particular in relation to drones.

An MOD spokesperson, in response to questions from the Guardian, said: “UK forces are regularly embedded in the forces of other nations under longstanding exchange programmes with allies, where small numbers of UK personnel act under the operational command of host nations. When embedded, UK personnel are effectively operating as foreign troops.

“A small number of UK personnel are currently embedded within the US RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) programme, supporting Reaper aircraft in roles which are either engaged only in the launch and recovery phase or in non-operational environments. It is for the US to comment on details of their unit’s operational activity. But as the secretary of state made clear to parliament on Monday, UK personnel will always operate within UK and international law.”

US drone missions began in Yemen in 2002 and Pakistan in 2004. Barack Obama authorised drone strikes against Syria in September last year.

There have been dozens of RAF drone missions over Syria since September but the MoD says these are for reconnaissance, not attacks.

There is no evidence that RAF crews embedded with the 432nd were engaged in operations involving strikes in Pakistan and Yemen. It could be that, unlike British pilots embedded with the US who conducted strikes against targets in Syria, the rules of engagement at Creech exempted RAF crews from attacks in Pakistan and Yemen.

Jennifer Gibson, a lawyer at Reprieve, said: “The CIA’s secret drone programme has killed hundreds of civilians in countries such as Yemen and Pakistan, where neither the US nor the UK are at war. It takes place in the shadows and beyond accountability – and so far the British government has claimed it has nothing to do with them.

“Ministers must come clean to the public on the part the UK has played. And they have a duty to British personnel to ensure they do not embroil them in the CIA’s illegal assassination programme.”

Chris Cole, founder of the campaign group Drone Wars UK, echoed Gibson: “These complex and opaque methods of sharing personnel and equipment between nations come on top of a real erosion in international law norms regarding when and where military force may be used … it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell which nation is involved in which armed conflict in which part of the globe.

“As one of the states to be involved in these ‘creative accounting’ type arrangements with our military forces, the government has an increased duty to be open and transparent with both MPs and the public about how and when our forces and aircraft are being used.”