The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, has confirmed the RAF will deploy extra warplanes to the Middle East in the event of a Commons vote in favour of expanding airstrikes to Syria.
Although Fallon did not specify the type or numbers of planes, more Tornados will be sent to reinforce the eight based in Cyprus, which have been carrying out raids in Iraq. Typhoons will also be deployed.
RAF planes could in theory be in action against Islamic State targets in Syria within minutes of the vote. If jets were in the air over or on their way to Iraq, they could be diverted to a target in Syria.
Fallon, giving evidence to the Commons defence committee ahead of the vote on Wednesday, said “we will definitely be adding to” the existing force. Insisting no final decision had been made on numbers, he added: “We will be stepping up the number of sorties.”
Senior military staff accompanying Fallon at the defence committee hearing said the aim of UK attacks would be to hit the Isis leadership in areas where it feels comfortable and secure, primarily its command and control centres and training camps, as well as targeting sources of revenue, mainly from the oil industry.
At present, the eight Tornados conduct about two sorties a day. Britain’s 10 Reaper drones, based in Kuwait and flown from RAF crews based in the UK and the US, could also be airborne after the vote.
The Tornados operate as part of the US-led coalition and are directed to targets from central command depending on which planes are in the vicinity and the weaponry on board.
But if the government wants to make a political statement to demonstrate that the UK is now part of the coalition regularly conducting airstrikes in Syria, a bombing could be pre-planned.
RAF missions are coordinated by the US-led combined air operations centre at Udeid in Qatar. There is a strong UK presence at the centre, which controls operations over both Iraq and Syria. It decides on targets, which in military terms are divided into “dynamic” – Isis vehicles on the move or its fighters engaged in combat – and pre-planned.
Pre-planned targets are intended to be command centres, training camps, supply depots and fortified positions. These have usually been monitored over a long period and approval is given by an MoD targeting board, normally chaired by the defence secretary.
David Cameron, when putting forward his case for airstrikes in Syria, claimed Britain should be involved because it has precision missiles, namely the Brimstone, which reduce the risk of civilian casualties. But in front of the committee the military staff acknowledged that other countries also had such weapons.
The UK regularly used Brimstone missiles, each of which costs about £100,000, when it began attacking Isis in Iraq last year and early this year. But the militants, having learned lessons from operating in the open, began to make it more difficult by mingling with the civilian population, and the use of Brimstone began to be reduced.
Their use had been decreasing since April, with none at all used in September, though they were again used several times this month.
The Brimstone has an advanced radar system and a relatively small explosive charge that is intended to reduce the amount of shrapnel and flying debris.
Although Cameron made much of the contribution the UK could make using the Brimstone, Saudi Arabia, which is part of the US-led coalition, also has the the bombs and was flying missions over Syria up until September when it switched its focus to Yemen.
The Ministry of Defence estimated Isis’s strength at between 20,000 and 30,000 fighters, though it is hard to come up with an approximate figure as they wear civilian clothes and often do not carry weapons.
Fallon and the military staff struggled to produce answers when pushed by the defence committee chairman, Julian Lewis, for a breakdown of the 70,000 alleged moderate opposition fighters on the ground in Syria.
There was an uneasy silence from Fallon and his team when Lewis said that such information was not classified and he could not understand the unwillingness of Fallon to supply the names of such groups.
