The

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

existed from 1924 to 1968, later designated ''Canadian Forces Air Command'' under the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

, and then renamed to its original historic name of ''Royal Canadian Air Force'' in 2011. These are the squadrons that have served with Canada's air force since 1924.

Early squadrons

These early squadron numbers have a history going back to the post-

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Canadian Air Force which disbanded in 1920. These units were formed after the creation of the RCAF in 1924. * No. 1 Squadron RCAF * No. 2 Squadron RCAF * No. 3 Squadron RCAF *

No. 4 Squadron RCAF No. 4 (Bomber Reconnaissance) Squadron was a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron that was active before and during the Second World War. It was formed on 17 January 1933 at RCAF Station Jericho Beach and flew civil operations until 1939, conducting ...

No. 5 Squadron RCAF No. 5 Squadron RCAF was a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron that was active during the Second World War. It was primarily used in an anti-submarine role with Eastern Air Command and was based at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Gander, Newfoundland, Torba ...

No. 6 Squadron RCAF No. 6 (Bomber Reconnaissance) Squadron was a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron that was active during the Second World War. It was formed on 4 March 1936 at RCAF Station Trenton as a Torpedo Bomber squadron before moving to RCAF Station Jericho B ...

No. 7 Squadron RCAF No. 7 (Bomber Reconnaissance) Squadron was a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron that was active during the Second World War. It was amalgamated from various Rockcliffe based flights on 29 January 1936 at CFB Rockcliffe, RCAF Station Rockcliffe ne ...

No. 8 Squadron RCAF No. 8 Squadron RCAF was a unit of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) that was in operation from 1936 to 1945. History No. 8 Squadron was formed on the 14 February 1936 as a General Purpose (GP) squadron at Winnipeg, Manitoba. The squadron moved ...

* No. 9 Squadron RCAF *

No. 10 Squadron RCAF No. 400 Squadron RCAF, No. 10 (Army Cooperation) Squadron RCAF was formed on 5 October 1932 and renumbered as No. 110 Squadron on 15 November 1937, and then as No. 400 Squadron on 1 March 1941, as the first of the Article XV squadrons, manned and l ...

* No. 11 Squadron RCAF * No. 12 Squadron RCAF * No. 13 Squadron RCAF * No. 14 Squadron RCAF * No. 18 Squadron RCAF

100-series squadrons

Established in Canada in the 1930s most of these units were either disbanded or reassigned a 400 series number for overseas service. *

No. 110 Squadron RCAF 400 "City of Toronto" Tactical Helicopter and Training Squadron is part of 1 Wing, and as such a lodger unit of Canadian Forces Base Borden. The squadron operates the CH-146 Griffon. History The squadron was formed as No. 10 Army Co-Operation ...

No. 111 Squadron RCAF 440 Transport Squadron is a unit of the Canadian Armed Forces under the Royal Canadian Air Force. It is part of 8 Wing and works closely with Joint Task Force (North) located in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Based at Yellowknife Airport ...

* No. 112 Squadron RCAF * No. 113 Squadron RCAF * No. 114 Squadron RCAF * No. 115 Squadron RCAF *

No. 116 Squadron RCAF No. 116 (Bomber Reconnaissance) Squadron was a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron that was active during the Second World War. It was originally formed as a Coast Artillery Co-operation squadron and then a fighter squadron before being disbanded in ...

* No. 117 Squadron RCAF *

No. 118 Squadron RCAF 438 "City of Montreal" Tactical Helicopter Squadron (French: ) is a unit of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The squadron operates the CH-146 Griffon tactical helicopter from the Hartland de Montarville Molson Hangar of CFB St. Hubert in Quebec, Can ...

No. 119 Squadron RCAF No. 119 Squadron was an RCAF Canadian Home War Establishment (HWE) Squadron. Created 15 May 1935 in Hamilton, Ontario, it came to be tasked with coastal patrol and anti-submarine duty over the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean around Nov ...

* No. 120 Squadron RCAF *

No. 121 Squadron RCAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a Typography, typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal number, ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For exampl ...

No. 122 Squadron RCAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, t ...

* No. 123 Squadron RCAF * No. 124 Squadron RCAF * No. 125 Squadron RCAF * No. 126 Squadron RCAF * No. 127 Squadron RCAF * No. 128 Squadron RCAF * No. 129 Squadron RCAF *

No. 130 Squadron RCAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a Typography, typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal number, ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For exampl ...

No. 131 Squadron RCAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a Typography, typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal number, ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For exampl ...

* No. 132 Squadron RCAF *

No. 133 Squadron RCAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a Typography, typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal number, ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For exampl ...

* No. 134 Squadron RCAF * No. 135 Squadron RCAF * No. 145 Squadron RCAF * No. 147 Squadron RCAF * No. 149 Squadron RCAF * No. 160 Squadron RCAF * No. 161 Squadron RCAF * No. 162 Squadron RCAF * No. 163 Squadron RCAF * No. 164 Squadron RCAF *

No. 165 Squadron RCAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a Typography, typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal number, ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For exampl ...

* No. 166 Squadron RCAF * No. 167 Squadron RCAF *

No. 168 Squadron RCAF No. 168 Squadron RCAF was a heavy transport (H.T.) squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force (unrelated to No. 168 Squadron RAF) that formed at RCAF Station Rockcliffe, near Ottawa, Ontario in on 18 October, 1943. The squadron carried large quanti ...

* No. 170 Squadron RCAF

400-series squadrons

During the Second World War, the

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), or Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a massive, joint military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zea ...

(BCATP) set out co-operation between the various

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

air forces. Under Article XV of the BCATP, RCAF squadrons were attached to and/or formed within British

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

operational formations. These squadrons were known as '

Article XV squadrons Article XV squadrons were Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand air force squadrons formed from graduates of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (1939) during World War II. These units complemented another feature of the BCATP, under whi ...

'. To avoid confusion with squadron numbers of other Commonwealth nations, RCAF units were assigned squadron numbers from 400–449. Not all squadrons up No. 449 were formed, however. This squadron series continued through the post-war years, and the majority of current

operational squadrons are still numbered in the 400s due to their legacy as wartime units. For this historical reason current squadrons are listed here with their original RCAF names.

600-series squadrons

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

pilots who served in the 600-series RCAF squadrons were recruited from the

Royal Canadian Artillery , colors = The guns of the RCA themselves , colors_label = Colours , march = * Slow march: "Royal Artillery Slow March" * Quick march (dismounted parades): "British Grenadiers/The ...

in England and Italy, and trained to fly at No. 2 Elementary Flying Training School RAF Cambridge (England), completing their operational flying training at 43 O.T.U. (

RAF Andover RAF Andover is a former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station in England, west of Andover, Hampshire. As well as RFC and RAF units, units of the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, Royal Canadian Air Force, United States Army Air ...

). Observers were trained at

Larkhill Larkhill is a garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England. It lies about west of the centre of Durrington village and north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. It is about north of Salisbury. The settlement ...

(England); these were selected 'Other Ranks' from the

and

. The three Canadian 'Air Observation Post' squadrons operated under the command of No. 70 Group RAF,

RAF Fighter Command RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War. It earned near-immortal fame during the Battle of Britai ...

; the first two squadrons saw action while serving with No. 84 Group RAF,

RAF Second Tactical Air Force The RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) was one of three tactical air forces within the Royal Air Force (RAF) during and after the Second World War. It was made up of squadrons and personnel from the RAF, other British Commonwealth air forces, ...

. *

No. 664 Squadron RCAF No. 664 "Air Observation Post" Squadron, RCAF was formed in England during the Second World War. It was manned principally by Royal Canadian Artillery (RCA) and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) personnel, with select British artillery pilots briefly ...

No. 665 Squadron RCAF No. 665 "Air Observation Post" Squadron, RCAF was formed in England during the Second World War. It was manned principally by Royal Canadian Artillery (RCA) and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) personnel, with select British artillery pilots brief ...

* No. 666 Squadron RCAF

Post-war squadrons

Subsequent to the Second World War the RCAF expanded their squadron numbers to include 444–450. No. 450 was also a

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

squadron during the war and the Canadian squadron duplicated the number by error, which was discovered when No. 450 Squadron RCAF was formed in 1968. *

No. 444 Squadron RCAF 444 Combat Support Squadron is an Air Force unit with the Canadian Armed Forces. Based at CFB Goose Bay, it provides helicopter support to the base operations. History 444 Fighter Squadron was formed in March 1953 at CFB St. Hubert, Quebec and ...

No. 445 Squadron RCAF No. 445 Squadron RCAF was a short-lived post World War II squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force. The unit was formed in 1953 at CFB North Bay and equipped with CF-100 Canuck. It relocated to CFB Uplands shortly afterwards. In 1956 No 445 relo ...

* No. 446 Squadron RCAF * No. 447 Squadron RCAF * No. 448 Squadron RCAF * No. 449 Squadron RCAF * No. 450 Squadron RCAF

Other squadrons

* 21 Aerospace Control and Warning Squadron * 103 Search and Rescue Squadron – This unit was operational in the RCAF from 1947–1968. Initially as 103 Search and Rescue Flight it was renamed as 103 Rescue Unit in 1950 and remained active until 1968. It was reactivated in 1977 by the Canadian Forces and redesignated a squadron in 1997. * 107 Rescue Unit – formerly a detachment of 103 Search and Rescue Squadron was created in 1954 and remained there until the RCAF left and transferred it back to

Transport Canada Transport Canada (french: Transports Canada) is the department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of road, rail, marine and air transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transportati ...

as civilian airport St. John's International Airport. * No. 242 (Canadian) Squadron RAF * 10 Squadron or Heavier-than-air Experimental Air Squadron VX 10 – not part of RCAF (or mistaken for

) it was established in 1953 to test and evaluate aircraft for the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack s ...

within the Royal Canadian Naval Air Station Shearwater. It was disbanded in 1970.

References

Squadron information from Juno Beach CentreSquadron information from Government of Canada
* Fromow, Lt-Col. D.L. (2002) '' Canada's Flying Gunners '', Air Observation Post Pilot's Association, Ottawa, Canada * Stewart, Major A.B. (1945) '' Battle History 666 '', Epe, Holland {{Canadian Forces Air Command Canadian Air Force squadrons Canadian Air Force Air Force squadrons