Here is something for veterans of the the 1960/1970s RN carriers and Scimitar/Sea Vixen/Phantom days.
It is not hard to find 1980s pictures of Sea Harriers intercepting Soviet Bears, but not at all easy to find pictures of RN carrierborne fighters intercepting the Soviets during the 1960s or 1970s. Why not? Surely the Soviet Naval Air Force turned up regularly during NATO exercises, and the carriers would have launched aircraft to intercept?
One interception during the 1970 Exercise
Northern Wedding was captured on camera - see
here and
here. Were any other interceptions caught on camera? Were Ministers informed of them? Why did long range interception (and the NATO theatre) not form part of the staff work for CVA-01?
Does anyone have any tales of being catapulted off the intercept the bogey for real?