If you thought RAF jets were owned by the RAF, think again.
The RAF squadron targeted for a repaint by Palestine Action due to its involvement in supplying Israel’s genocide, does not in fact belong to the RAF at all. It belongs ultimately to Polygon Global Partners LLP, a Hedge Fund.
Through a chain of seven cutout companies, which I will take you through, the direct ownership is with Airtanker Ltd, which gives its address as RAF Brize Norton. It owns, maintains and operates the RAF’s Voyager refuelling aircraft, which have been providing mid-air refuelling to the Israeli Defence Forces as well as carrying, in their cargo role, munitions to the IDF.
Note that Airtanker Ltd states that five of the Voyager aircraft while available to the RAF: “can also be made available to other parties. This can include providing military capability to other nations…”.
Whether the aircraft have been operated by the RAF on behalf of the Israelis, or whether they have been “provided to” the IDF direct, is an interesting question. Is this designed to build in plausible deniability for the UK government?
Eight of the Voyager Aircraft though fully painted in RAF livery, actually are the property of Airtanker Ltd.
It is not plain whether the other six – also the property of Airtanker Ltd but only occasionally used by the RAF – are also in RAF livery. The company does not show any photographs of jets not in RAF livery.
So who owns Airtanker Ltd? Well, the “person with significant control” on the Companies House register is Airtanker Holdings Ltd. They own over 75% but less than 100%. It would be interesting to know who owns the rest.
So who owns Airtanker Holdings Ltd? Well, it is owned – more than 25% and less than 50% – by Airbus, which provides the actual aircraft, and more than 25% and less than 50% by Equitix Capital Eurobond 6 Ltd, which presumably provides finance. As both own under 50% it would be interesting to know who owns the rest, and why.
So who owns Equitix Capital Eurobond 6 Ltd? Well, Equitix Capital Eurobond 6 Ltd is owned by Equitix Holdings Ltd, a company at the same address in the City of London.
So who owns Equitix Holdings Ltd? Well, Equitix Holdings Ltd is owned by Pace Bidco Ltd, a company curiously enough also at the same address.
So who owns Pace Bidco Ltd? Well, Pace Bidco Ltd is owned by Pace Topco Ltd, a company which turns out to be also at the same address!
So who owns Pace Topco Ltd? Well, here, we finally get the name of a human being. It is a Mr Reade Griffith whose address is given as Polygon Global Partners LLP, 4 Sloane St, London.
On another page of the register a Mr Reade Eugene Griffith is given as a Director of Pace Topco Ltd, presumably the same person. This would also appear to be the same individual as the E Griffith Reade who is listed as – amongst other interests – the 10% owner of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.
Polygon is a hedge fund. It would appear likely from the register to be either Polygon or Griffith’s umbrella hedge fund Tetragon that owns these liveried RAF aircraft. We have therefore simply no idea who the investors are: it could be anyone from BlackRock to Kim Jong Un. The true ownership is deliberately shrouded in secrecy.
This spaghetti tangle of ownership of RAF aircraft is rather surprising to those of us who naively believed that RAF military aircraft belonged to the RAF, and that the hundreds of billions of pounds the state lavishes on “defence” was used to do things like buy military jets, rather than make rich financiers still richer.
The long tree of subsidiary companies is not only to disguise ownership. At every single stage it provides opportunity for tax avoidance and for other forms of corruption, like consultancy contracts or directorships handed out to the contacts or nominated go-betweens of the politicians and senior civil servants. If you saw a company called Pace Bidco Ltd were giving a remunerative consultancy to the son of an ex-government minister, or to a firm registered to his local landlord, why would that ring alarm bells or connect to the RAF?
To be plain those are entirely hypothetical examples. I am not accusing Pace Bidco Ltd of anything. I merely explain the system.
Defence spending is more prone to corruption than any other form of spending and that is why venal politicians are always extremely keen to boost it. No UK politician has ever proposed to increase defence spending by more than Keir Starmer, who wants to lift it by £120 billion a year.
The RAF’s Voyager aircraft are effectively being provided under the Private Finance Initiative. Exactly how much money the hedge fund managers and this string of companies are taking out of the defence budget is hard to know.
One particularly surprising fact is that it is plain that the private companies are also providing the RAF ground crew. Who employs the flight crews is not entirely clear.
That such an obviously rotten and corrupt arrangement exists in the RAF I had no idea. Some British military personnel are in fact contracted mercenaries. It gives new context to the active RAF involvement in the Genocide in Gaza.
Palestine Action’s excellent act of resistance in vandalising this Hedge Fund Air Force has brought all of this to our attention. Which is yet a further reason to be grateful to Palestine Action.
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https://www.gov.uk/government/news/three-groups-to-be-proscribed
From the British government:
“Three dangerous, terrorist groups will be banned under plans announced by the Home Secretary today. A draft proscription order has been laid in Parliament which will proscribe Palestine Action (PA), as well as two further groups: the Maniacs Murder Cult (MMC) and the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM).”
“Proscription is ideologically neutral. By deciding to proscribe these three organisations, the government is demonstrating its zero tolerance approach to terrorism, regardless of its form or underlying ideology.”
The teenager straight out of a Clarendon school has been at the keyboard again. Perhaps he couldn’t get into Sandhurst and went into the civil service instead. The use of the term “ideologically neutral” is puerile, and as for “demonstrating” something, that may have been what was written on the memo, laddie, but you’re not supposed to say it in public. You’re supposed to say you’re preventing people in all walks of like, in pubs and clubs and mortgaged homes, from getting blown to pieces.
And as for neutrality, why say it’s PA plus two other groups? Just list the three in alphabetical order. They’re all the same to you, right? Make one your part of your message (“neutral”) consistent with the other (“here’s the list”). FFS!
I haven’t looked up about the Maniacs yet. I’m getting vibes of the little boy who calls up a school to say he’s not coming in today, saying “This is my father speaking”. (The Rabble-Rousing Bolshie Trot Committee told me to write that.)
As for the RIM, perhaps the same could be said. Russian imperialism exists but hasn’t got much to do with the Donbas.
Depressing though not unsurprising is the ease with which Cooper is able to push this through with small opposition coming from the usual suspects – Corbyn, Zultana, Begum etc. The brunt of the argument that PA’s methods of throwing symbolic paint on aeroplanes amounts to terrorism is pathetic but what is more pathetic to the point of utter cynicism with British politics (though I have reached that end point already) is the behaviour of those MPs who happily voted it through without reference to rights or morality. You are right the idea of “ideology neutrality” is utter nonsense but our MPs are far too thick to work that out. I guess they are hoping the judges following recent precedent will take the same line. We will see.
What’s in a name? The name doesn’t seem particularly important compared to a cause.
What if, hypothetically, some group adopted a symbol, say a triangle, like that in the Palestinian flag? Could they proscribe the triangle? An awful lot of schools and universities would find it difficult to uphold a ban.
Concerning the second para, I note that the IDF is not proscribed. Indeed the UK government is very tolerant of the terrorism that the IDF is responsible for, and the enormous loss of life that it has brought about (likely over 100,000 people killed in Gaza) compared to any of these groups – zero, in the case of Palestine Action. Therefore, the government has _not_ demonstrated zero tolerance to terrorism regardless of its form (a conscript army) or underlying ideology (Zionism) – quite the opposite.
They won’t criminalise membership of the IDF(typically dual nationals) or support, as that’d mean a full break in diplomatic relations with Israel.
Can you imagine the US response to that?
The simple truth is, were the US hostile to Israel’s behaviour in Gaza, and imposing sanctions, then the UK would be imposing sanctions too. The UK’s position shadows that of the US; our status is that of a vassal state, as Macron once called the UK.
Perhaps Ireland or South Africa might legislate to consider joining the IDF to be a terrorist offence.
In other news, “the US government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating maggot.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/02/new-world-screwworm-fly-flesh-eating-maggot
““It’s an exceptionally good technology,” said Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor at the University of Florida who studies parasites in animals, particularly livestock. “It’s an all-time great in terms of translating science to solve some kind of large problem.””
What a ridiculous quote. I wonder whether Prof Burgess has heard of the Four Pests Campaign in China and how that went.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign
If he has, he’s wicked. If he hasn’t, he’s ignorant in the very field he’s presenting himself as an expert in – what might happen when you interfere in biology like this.
In a time when we are all supposed to be more conscious of ecology, it is insane to think that this kind of thing is a good idea, let alone in the category of “double plusgood” and “all-time great” into which the learned professor places it. What you can control you will, what you can’t you’ll monitor, right?
Funny you mention South Africa.
Many of these Labour MPs probably supported Mandela and by association the ANC, who used terrorism themselves. Labour grandee and former leader, Neil Kinnock, was even pictured giving ‘black power’ fist salutes at the UK ‘Free Nelson Mandela Concert’ aka. ‘Freedomfest’ held at Wembley stadium. way back in 1988. Imagine, putting to those people back then, the idea, that they’d be supporting another apartheid 37 years later. The differing attitudes to that apartheid injustice and today’s: the concerts, the public clamour for sanctions etc, really illustrate how powerful the Israel lobby are.
…Neil Kinnock was in fact the leader of the Labour party at the time (1983-1992), putting how different attitudes were into some perspective. Would a Concert for Palestine or Gaza, even be permitted now? Lots of artists: actors and musicians, would no doubt be fearful of appearing, due to the potential career repercussions. Talented US actress, Rachel Zegler has been told she could have jeopardised her career by speaking out, as have others. I think Hispanic and Latino Americans generally have more empathy for Gazans’ plight, because many have felt like second class citizens in America, with all the ICE raids etc.
I noticed Rod Stewart, got unusually snarky press reviews of his closing Glastonbury ‘legends’ set; these came after the statement he released in support of Gaza and recent interviews reiterating those points: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/17/rod-stewart-netanyahu-palestinians/
Disturbingly Israel is free to do whatever it want, every day one wake up like it is “Groundhog Day”, reading about this or that blatant war crime, only to hear the western media/politicians try to play it down and rationalize it and by the end of the day the crime is buried, forgotten.
Yesterday a senior doctor and director of the Indonesian Hosptial in Gaza was killed. But not only him, israel targeted his apartment killing the doctor and his family…
Director of north Gaza hospital killed alongside his family in Israeli strike on apartment
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hospital-director-north-gaza-israeli-strike-1.7575148
Read that again, israel target doctors, in their own home, with their family.
Was german nazis even this callous and calculated?
If the west had any honesty they would talk about the most dangerous of pro-violence, terrorist violence and that is zionism, an ideology that have killed more civilians than isis by now.
Another example of the evil that is israel:
“Israeli fighter pilots returning from air defense missions during the 12-day war with Iran were routinely authorized to unload their leftover munitions on the Gaza Strip,
Military officials described the program as a “force multiplier” that allowed the air force to expand bombing raids in Gaza without additional resources.”
https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-pilots-dumped-unused-bombs-over-gaza-during-iran-strikes-report
There is no limit to the depravity of israel. No wonder people chant ‘death to the IDF’
If you want to know how your MP voted on the Palestine Action Bill, here’s a link.
https://leftfootforward.org/2025/07/palestine-action-how-every-mp-voted-on-proscribing-them-as-a-terrorist-group/
I just remembered something my late father used to say about his time in the RAF.
The saying they had he said is “If it moves salute it , If it doesn’t move paint it”
So maybe Palestine Action took this a bit to literally.
Is there clear evidence that these planes have been (or could be) used to support the Israelis in their genocide, or in any capacity at all?
This is important. If carried out by a foriegn state, disabling these planes would be an act of war. I only agree with acts like this if they clearly disrupt the Israeli genocide. The attacks on Elbit clearly come into that category.
If anyone can authoritatively refute the claim that these planes cannot technically be used to refuel Israeli jets, I would be grateful.
‘refueling Israeli jets’ and ‘supporting the Israelis in their genocide’ are not necessarily the same thing. Until it is known what these planes have been doing it is a fair assumption, given the government secrecy, that they are in some way supporting Israeli genocide.
“If anyone can authoritatively refute the claim that these planes cannot technically be used to refuel Israeli jets, I would be grateful.”
Easily done. The planes cannot refuel Israeli jets in the air, it is true, but they can refuel them by ferrying fuel to the airbase that the jets fly from and where they can be refuelled on the ground in the normal way.
“Akrotiri is a key site for refuelling. The main fuel depot, the Petroleum Storage Depot, is located on the shoreline of Akrotiri, which can store up to 29 million litres of aviation fuel. ”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/raf-akrotiri-turns-70-imperialist-violence-british-military-base-cyprus/5893403
Hugely interesting article. This topic, as I’m sure there’s much more that could be uncovered, would make for a wonderful documentary by a good, independent, investigative journalist … but it may have to be aired online.