Dystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund

Former Ambassador, Human Rights Activist

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 Lrd 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 venial 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 obiously 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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The post Dystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund appeared first on Craig Murray.

Source: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/06/dystopia-uk-genocidal-raf-squadron-targeted-by-palestine-action-is-owned-by-a-hedge-fund-and-leased-by-the-raf/