Hundreds. The normal formation was a Tanker + Q2 (Q1 did the first intercept at the edge and headed for home, Q2 was scrambled to replace him and, hopefully, the tanker from BZ had got airborne in waaaaay less than 3 hours and escorted him north.
Bears invariably flew in pairs. Q2 would do an intercept on the lead aircraft and leave the tanker to shadow it when he went off after the second aircraft. When they were Bear Fs at low level finding the second aircraft could be tricky, but at least the tanker could keep track of the other one.
It usually meant using HF, and then long quiet periods when the fighter was plugged in.
So Victors, VC-10s and Tristars all got intercepts. Even if they got their knucles rapped when they went under a Bear to get the door numbers and the Russian embassy filed a complaint....
Not sure if the Shack ever got an intercept. I mean, he was stuck at about 5-7k ft and 140kts, but I suppose a Bear F might have got curious and gone to have a look at
him...
