Phantom Phlyers RAF Leuchars 80's

[CoffmanStarter]

I came across these videos today ... the Nationwide TV Programme dealing with QRA at Leuchars in the early 80's ... involving Tremblers and 43 Squadron ...

Thought it would be of interest to Courtney, Geehovah and a few others:ok:

LiveLeak.com - RAF Phantoms out of Leuchars intercept Russian Bears in Cold war skies 1980. BBC Nationwide Part 1

LiveLeak.com - RAF Phantoms out of Leuchars intercept Russian Bears in Cold War skies 1980. BBC Nationwide Part 2

Click the links in the yellow header boxes on the embedded video window ...

Hope you enjoy ...

Coff.

[BlackIsle]

Thanks for the Cold War memories -was at Leuchars myself 85-88 and remember some busy spells for NQRA!

Sad though to see my pal Jack T who joined up with me - RIP fella.

[Geehovah]

Some great nostalgia. "QRA to cockpit readiness"

Some familiar faces there. Jack Thompson in a starring role, RIP Old Chap!

[dat581]

Just out of curiosity why was the QRA run from Leuchars instead of Lossiemouth which is about 80 nm further north?

[burnden]

Excellent nostalgia, with Dire Straights too !

RIP Jack.

PS. Where's 'Stilts' these days?

[Deepest Norfolk]

DAT,

Because Leuchars was where the AD assets were based up there.

[dat581]

Well yes of course but Lossiemouth once had Phantoms and you would think you would want to get as close to the threat as possible.

[pr00ne]

dat581,


Lossiemouth has never had Phantoms, RN or RAF. As Deepest Norfolk pointed out they mounted IAF (NOT QRA, that was a far more serious affair...) from Leuchars because that's where the RAF AD squadrons were based. 80 miles makes not a jot of difference to what they were doing.

[mr Q]

Cold War interceptions
How many interceptions in 2012 of Russian Federation aircraft doing exactly what the Cold War USSR bears were doing ??

[TEEEJ]

Mr Q,

Figures for 2012, 2011 and 2010.

Parliament - Written Answers to Questions 24th January 2013

Thursday 24 January 2013

Angus Robertson (Moray, Scottish National Party)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions Royal Air Force aircraft have been launched to monitor Russian aircraft approaching UK airspace in each of the last three years; and where each such flight was (a) directed and (b) scrambled from.

Andrew Robathan (South Leicestershire, Conservative)

Royal Air Force quick reaction alert (QRA) aircraft are based at RAF Leuchars and RAF Coningsby. The number of days on which QRA aircraft have launched in response to Russian military aviation that approached or entered the NATO air policing area for which the UK has responsibility in the each of the last three years is contained in the following table. The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace at all times. Not every launch resulted in an interception as some incidents were resolved prior to interception.

Number of days QRA launched in response to Russian military aviation
2010 11
2011 10
2012 8

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 24 Jan 2013 (pt 0001) (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm130124/text/130124w0001.htm#13012463001994)

Tu-95MS Bear H were in the North Sea on the 21st March 2013. Dutch and UK QRA were involved.

Dutch F-16s scramble to intercept Russian bombers :: F-16.net (http://www.f-16.net/news_article4715.html)

During September 2012 even the German QRA F-4F Phantoms got a chance to intercept the Tu-95MS Bear Hs in the North Sea.

Russian Strategic Bombers Carry out North Patrols | Defense | RIA Novosti (http://en.ria.ru/military_news/20120912/175920165.html)

[TEEEJ]

Release from the Japanese Ministry of Defence - Tu-95MS operations on the 15th March 2013 - Map and image.

http://www.mod.go.jp/js/Press/press2013/press_pdf/p20130315.pdf

2013 should see a Tu-95MS Bear H and B-52H exchange programme. Tu-95MS Bear H will visit Barksdale and B-52Hs will visit Engels. USAF crews visited Engels during 2012 to make preparations for the B-52 visit.

Team members evaluated the suitability of the airfield at Engels Air Base for B-52H operations. The outing also established initial relationships for a long range aviation bomber exchange program between the U.S. and Russia

2nd Bomb Wing delegation visits Russia (http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123313284)

Russian strategic bombers to visit U.S.

Two Russian Tupolev Tu-95MS strategic bombers will fly to the Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, United States, in 2013 under an agreement reached during a recent visit of senior officers from the Russian Long-Range Air Force to the United States, Long-Range Air Force commander Lt. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev said on Tuesday. Zhikharev made the announcement at a news conference.

Russian strategic bombers to visit U.S. | Russia Beyond The Headlines (http://rbth.ru/articles/2012/07/17/russian_strategic_bombers_to_visit_us_16438.html)

[El Grifo]

Still my favorite aircraft of all time :ok:

El G.

[TEEEJ]

Some recent interesting images of Tu-95MS.

Tu-95 Cloud (http://russianplanes.net/id97680)

Tu-95 Contrail� (http://russianplanes.net/id100844)

Tu-95 Contrail (http://russianplanes.net/id100839)

RussianPlanes.net� (http://russianplanes.net/)

[howiehowie93]

El G Wrote:
Still my favorite aircraft of all time http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

you obviously never had to fix the bloody things then!

I was on QRA with Tremblers when they came up and filmed, had to get all new kit it didn't stay clean long :)

Regards
H

[Courtney Mil]

Dat581,

In the days that that those AD assets were based, the threat wasn't just from the north, most of our defences were facing East. Leuchars was always a pretty good location to cover the northern routes and the direct bomber axis.

[dat581]

Fair enough! I suppose if the balloon went up the VVS would not worry about flying around Norway either.

[El Grifo]

Got me bang to rights there howie :ok:

Last time I was up there aroundc 1990 they gave me an F3 to play with.

The were a bit put out when I said I needed it out of the shed.

My enduring memory is of me directing the aircraft to my preferred location.

Got the shot though:ok:

[SOSL]

I was there in 1976. At that time there was a bit of a problem with aborted starts caused by the Solent GTS going tyts up.

The servicing policy for the Solent, decreed by the engineering authority, at Strike Command, was "on condition" meaning don't do anything until it goes wrong.

A junior technician in the engine bay said "erm .. why don't we try servicing the Solent after every 50 starts" so we did.

Reduced the aborted start figures by 75 %. Rolled out the procedure to all the other Phantom units.

So junior technician made a big contribution to the cold war effort.

That's what I like about tradesmen/women.

Rgds SOS

[mr Q]

Thanx for the statistics TEEEJ
Interesting reading ...