No 54 Squadron flew a formation of four Hawker Hunter F1 aircraft. The following year the Squadron team adopted the name The Black Knights – the pilots wore black flying suits. They re-equipped to Mk9s gradually as the squadron relocated from RAF Odiham to RAF Stradishall in July 1959 with Hunter Mk9s and to RAF West Raynham, Norfolk, in 1963. The squadron was briefly disbanded on 1 September 1969, however was reformed the same day after being re-equipped with McDonnell-Douglas Phantoms at RAF Coningsby in 1969. By 1974 when twelve SEPECAT Jaguar aircraft were delivered the squadron had re-located to RAF Coltishall. From 1975 until at least 1994 (the last year for which data is available) the squadron's wartime role was as an operational squadron in the front line assigned to SACEUR with twelve Jaguar aircraft, eight WE.177 tactical nuclear bombs, and a variety of conventional weapons. In a high-intensity European war the unit's role was to support land forces on the Continent resisting an assault by the Red Army on Western Europe, first with conventional weapons and secondly with tactical nuclear weapons, should a conflict escalate to that stage, by striking beyond the forward edge of the battlefield into enemy-held areas. The apparent mismatch between aircraft numbers and nuclear bombs was a consequence of RAF staff planners concluding that with some aircraft held back from the conventional phase as a reserve, there would be one-third attrition of aircraft, leaving the remaining survivors numerically strong enough to deliver the squadron's entire stockpile of eight nuclear bombs. Post Cold War The squadron moved to RAF Coltishall in 1974 and, following the retirement of the WE.177 nuclear weapon in the late 1990s, took on a more expeditionary footing with a number of operational deployments including flights over Northern Iraq from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey and flights over the Balkans from Gioia del Colle Air Base in Italy. With the decision taken to run the Jaguar fleet down in anticipation of the arrival of its replacement, the Typhoon, No 54 Squadron was disbanded at RAF Coltishall on 11 March 2005. ISR OCU Reformed as No. 54 (Reserve) Squadron at RAF Waddington on 1 September 2005 it re-roled as the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Operational Conversion Unit, responsible for training all mission crews for the E-3D Sentry AEW1, the Nimrod R1 and the Sentinel R.1, and later the MQ-9A Reaper. From 2010,