When the political situation in South Africa became more difficult and extreme in 1954 he decided to resign from the SAAF and moved to England where he transferred to the Royal Air Force in the rank of flying officer (Service No.
He became a Qualified Flying Instructor (QFI) on Vampires, later converting to the Hawker Hunter, and serving the front line North Sea interceptors of No.
After a 1965 exchange tour posting to the United States where he flew most of the Century Series Fighters and the Phantom he returned to the UK as Officer Commanding No.
In 1969 on promotion to acting group captain he moved to two staff postings, firstly as 'Staff Officer Central Tactics and Trials' and later as 'Deputy Director Operational Research 1'.
After his rank as a group captain was made substantive, in 1973 he was appointed Officer Commanding RAF Gutersloh on the front line of the Cold War Iron Curtain operations.
On his return from Germany in 1975 he attended the Royal College of Defence Studies for ten months and was posted to RAF Bentley Priory as 'Operations Staff Officer (Training)' at Headquarters 11 Group, Strike Command.
Following a tour of duty as an Operations Staff Officer, in 1977 Howe moved across the road on promotion to air commodore and took up the appointment as Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps who were also located at Bentley Priory.
The first intake of five officers to do so attended '157 SERE' in October to November 1979 and Air Commodore Howe was guest of honour at the formal end of course dinner.
The OPEVAL evaluation assessors consisted of a joint six-man team from HQROC and the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation who would arrive on an irregular basis and place the whole group on a realistic but simulated war footing.
Howe also spearheaded the rapid improvement of inter-group communications over the coming years with the introduction of computerised message switching and modern integrated, EMP hardened telephone systems.