Raids against Islamic State are being conducted from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus "with broken jets and tired and fed-up people", BBC Newsnight has been told.
In a letter, a serviceman said the base was being neglected, morale was poor and ground crews had taken to eating humanitarian rations meant for Iraqis.
Newsnight also understands only 16 of 102 RAF Tornado jets still meet full combat standards.
An RAF spokesman dismissed many of the claims as "factually inaccurate".
But a Ministry of Defence source confirmed an incident in which ground crew had been given rations had happened.
The serviceman alleged that "the costs and quality of the catering and retail support are a disgrace" and that crews there are led by a chain of command, "so laced with budgetary fear... that no one knows what the plan is".
Newsnight has established that during a recent visit by an air vice marshal, one sergeant from II Squadron complained about the quality of the food available to crews working overnight on Tornado jets.
Contracts at the base provide only for hot meals during the day, with snacks laid on at night.
The air vice marshal, on hearing the complaints, went to a pallet of rations intended for air dropping to refugees in northern Iraq.
He was "so disgusted by the 'cheese sandwiches' offered as meals to the night shift, he went and broke into a pallet of aid and handed it out as it was better than what we were feeding our airmen", said the serviceman's letter.
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BBC News - 'Morale poor' among UK crews at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus
In a letter, a serviceman said the base was being neglected, morale was poor and ground crews had taken to eating humanitarian rations meant for Iraqis.
Newsnight also understands only 16 of 102 RAF Tornado jets still meet full combat standards.
An RAF spokesman dismissed many of the claims as "factually inaccurate".
But a Ministry of Defence source confirmed an incident in which ground crew had been given rations had happened.
The serviceman alleged that "the costs and quality of the catering and retail support are a disgrace" and that crews there are led by a chain of command, "so laced with budgetary fear... that no one knows what the plan is".
Newsnight has established that during a recent visit by an air vice marshal, one sergeant from II Squadron complained about the quality of the food available to crews working overnight on Tornado jets.
Contracts at the base provide only for hot meals during the day, with snacks laid on at night.
The air vice marshal, on hearing the complaints, went to a pallet of rations intended for air dropping to refugees in northern Iraq.
He was "so disgusted by the 'cheese sandwiches' offered as meals to the night shift, he went and broke into a pallet of aid and handed it out as it was better than what we were feeding our airmen", said the serviceman's letter.
more
BBC News - 'Morale poor' among UK crews at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus
