A very long time ago, the quality of intel enabled a scheduled tankex around the northern and western islands on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even with a 10% hit rate, this was a good compromise between having to launch multiple Q waves (Lightnings) until the tanker arrived, or prepositioning a tanker.
In addition, it gave the Russians a few surprises, until they surprised us at low level.
On a daily basis there was good early warning from Norway - time for ‘lunch before launch’, and to generate tanker support … until they surprised us at low level.
There were several ‘Bug…er Factor’ flights; a 12 ship round-trip to the US East coast - 20 Jan every four years; 2-4 aircraft to mid Atlantic, S Spain with the 6th fleet changeover, tracking all Carrier movements in the N Atlantic Iceland Faeroes, and a rare foray to the N Sea.