A few more MPC dates from overlapped Aberporth's Bloodhound Firing windows from 1976 - 1982.
4-5 October 1976 - 56 Sqn MPC - 2 Sidewinder flashheads and a Sparrow Telemetry round fired. MPC cut short due to target non availability.
19 October 1976 - 5 Sqn - Red Top ORA firing from Wattisham.
19 October 1976 - RAF Germany QRA Firestreak firing.
8 November 1976 - 111 Sqn QRA Sparrow (Warhead) missile fired (Failure of Guidance).
2-7 September 1977 - 56 Sqn MPC - 4 Sparrows (Telemetry round) fired. No other details
13-14 September 1977 - 92 Sqn MPC - 2 Sparrow (Telemetry) and 2 Sidewinders fired. No other details
15 September 1977 - 43 Sqn QRA - Sidewinder with Warhead fired. Missile homed succesfully.
20-22 September 1977 - 5 and 11 Sqn Lightings fired missiles during Ex Omaga Minor - no other details.
5 - ? June 1978 - 5 Sqn MPC - 2 successful firings on 6th June (missile type not listed) no other pages of June F540 photographed.
Late April - 2 May 1979 - 11 Sqn MPC - 3 Red Top missiles left to fire at start of month. 2 fired on 1st May, one of which destroyed the flare pack and damaged the Jindivik. Due to Weather, they couldn't fire the last missile on the 2nd so took it back to Binbrook and flew the firing from there on the 5th May. The Rocket motor on the Red Top blew up just after launch right in front both the launching aircraft and the photo chase, fortunately they managed to avoid the shrapnel.
14 - 25 May 1979 - 5 Sqn MPC - The squadron didn't get a Missile off the rail until the morning of 21st May, when a Red Top Telemetry round scored a direct hit on a Jindivik, resulting in its loss, the second missile was fired that afternoon. On the 24th May, another Red Top rocket motor exploded after launch almost exactly like the 11 Sqn missile did at the start of the month, though in this case the launching aircraft did eat debris and required a double engine change when it got back to Valley. After that the last 4 Red Tops fired on 24 and 25 May all worked perfectly.
4 June 1979 - Sparrow firing by 56 Sqn from Wattisham during Ex Priory
5 June 1979 - Red Top firing by 11 Sqn from Binbrook during Ex Priory
8 June 1979 - QRA Sidewinder firing by 56 Sqn from Wattisham
11 - 22 June 1979 - 29 Sqn MPC done from Coningsby due to runway resurface at Valley. They managed to get 2 Sparrow off the Phantoms on Day 1, then got stopped by range failures, weather and a one day strike by the Civil Servants.
24 - 29 October 1979 - 23 Sqn MPC - The first firing was a Sparrow against a Stiletto supersonic target at low level due to Jindiviks not being available. The reason for this was the servicing contract had be taken off Shorts Bothers and given to Airwork. When Airwork turn up to take over they found that the Shorts workers had taken all the servicing schedules off site with them when they left Llanbedr. Once things were sorted they got 2 sidewinders away and attempted another Sparrow shot at a Stiletto on 29 October. The Primary A/C weapon system went U/S and the pilot rushed back to Valley, got into another aircraft and rushed back just in time for the Secondary Firing aircraft to also go U/S allowing the primary shooter to press the fire button after locking on to the Stiletto. The Sparrow however didn't want to play and Misfired!!!.
Late November 1979 saw LTF doing a MPC with 3 Firestreaks fired on 20 and 21 November and their forth and last missile being fired on the 28th
Early December 1979 - 56 Sqn MPC - First sidewinder fired on 11 December after the first week was totally lost to weather. 56 Sqn then did a Night firing that evening against a Stiletto which was successfully engaged with a Sparrow. the 13th December saw three Phantoms line up to each take a pop at flare pack behind a Jindivik with a sidewinder only to the radars on all three aircraft fail and they all had to RTB. 14th December started off with 2 phantoms attempting to each salvo a pair of Sparrows off at a Semi Active Radar Tow (SART) target being towed by a Jindivik. Unfortunately for the second shooter, one of the Sparrows fired by the first aircraft scored a direct hit on the SART and destroyed it, resulting in the second aircraft having to bring his missile back. The afternoon saw an attempt to combine a Bloodhound Firing with a 56 Sqn Sidewinder firing. The Bloodhound would be fired against two Jindiviks in wide formation and dependant on fuel states at the end of that trial, the Phantom would come in from a holding pattern to the north and have a pop at a flare pack towed by one of the Jindiviks. 17 minutes after the Bloodhound was fired, the Phantom got its Sidewinder off successfully. Unfortunately the Bloodhound suffered a boost motor light up failure which resulted in it not going in the right direction and 18 seconds after launch it was destroyed by the Range Safety Officer.
? - 23 April 1980 - LTF MPC 2 Firestreaks fired on 22 and 23 April (Beginning of April 1980 F540 not photographed).
12 - ? May 1980 - 5 Sqn MPC (no details of firings as that part of 540 not photographed)
? - 13 June 1980 - 29 Sqn MPC (No details other than their last Skyflash missile really didn't want to be launched and that they took it home with them).
Late June 1980 - 92 Sqn MPC?. Shot down a Jindivik with a Sparrow instead of the SART it was towing on 24th June.
8th July 1980 - Two 111 Sqn Phantoms deployed to STCAAME to support the unit in its Taceval and each fired a Sidewinder on the range.
14 - 15 July 1980 - 111 Sqn MPC - Squadron had already used their 2 sidewinder firings up on the 8th July so only had 3 missiles to fire ( a Sparrow and 2 Skyflash) which the fired in the 2 day period.
11 - August 1980 - 56 Sqn MPC (rest of the F540 not photographed).
late September 1980 - 11 Sqn MPC - five Red Top missiles fired between 24 - 30 September.
11-22 May 1981 - 11 Sqn MPC - 4 Red Tops were fired on the 11 and 13, but the first two fired came of the same aircraft when only one was suppose to be fired. Switch positions in the Cockpit were correct for a single shot firing according to Aberporth. No details after 13th May.
1 - 5 June 1981 - 23 Sqn MPC. Successful Sparrow firings on 3rd and 5th June, though the missile on the 3rd suffered from spurious fuze firing and had it had a Warhead it would have blown up before reaching the Target. Unsuccessful Sidewinder firings on 1st and 2nd June. large missed distances for reasons unknown. Sky Flash firing on 4th June aborted due to Shipping in the range.
15 June 1981 - Successful Sparrow firing by Phantom from Boscombe Down based at STCAAME
15 - XX June 1981 - 43 Sqn MPC - one Sidewinder fired on 15th, rest of June 81 F540 not photographed as the details of the last Bloodhound fired in 1981 were at the top of the page. LTF were scheduled to also do an MPC that month and two other Boscombe Down Phantom Sparrow firing s were scheduled.
The two Bloodhounds fired in 1982 were both fired in May and beside Aberporth and STCAAME supporting strange trials involving sticking missiles and bombs on to strange aircraft because of the Falklands, STCAAME's MPC visitors were 11 Sqn who fired 4 of their 5 Firestreaks on the afternoon of day one (10 May) and their last missile on the morning of day two. The rest of the report was not photographed.