Any truth in the rumour that the E3D delayed for 30 mins waiting for crew rations? :\

Good to see Ivan down these parts again, gives everybody else a reminder of why we need an air force.
Who out there remembers intercepting using the T64 console and the T80 radar at SaxaVord with Lightnig F6 from Leuchars, Victor tankers and no AEW at all (even before the Shac AEW2). We used to record our intercepts on the "Order of the Red Star" board in the Ops Room. My name is there 16 times. I wonder what happened to the board when they closed the site to controllers and made it a remote.
I went on a liasion trip to the Faeroes site while at Saxa Vord, and to get there the route was fly Logan Air to Sumburgh, then to London, fly London to Copenhagen. Night stop there, fly to Stavanger and then to Faroes. I could have rowed there quicker in a small boat. (Well not rearly but you know what I mean). They managed to get me as drunk as I have ever been.
All good fun.

All I meant to say is that unknown sorties with unknown equipment must be moved around all the time, all over the globe (not just the USA). I imagine that it wouldn't be very convenient to tell the world about many military activities that have to take place, for obvious reasons.

Yeller Gait

Did you bother looking at the recent YouTube video posted just 3 posts ahead of yours? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPn1gj7fgYk

That isn't a fibreglass canoe in the bomb bay! It might not be nuke-tipped but it could be test-fired in "International Airspace" using "clear range procedures". An AS-15 would make a better target than a Jindavik for a QRA jet. The range of the missile is more important than the presence of the Bear - think about it.

Kitbag

I believe that the E-3 was up before our interceptors - rations or no rations.

Harrogate

I heard the F3 making a pan - but I thought he was for running low on fuel (hardly an unserviceable jet is it?). I heard him go into Lossie.

Let's stop back biting and thank the Lord that this has all come in front of Planning Round (PR) 08 at HQ Air. I thought we were going to finally going to succumb to the Army's wish of the RAF becoming a RW/FW grunt transporter fleet - I guess they'll need to rethink now!

I wonder how much CAS has paid Vladimir Putin?:ok:

LJ

I think this comes as food for thought material for the "we will never need to do that ever again" brigade. We knew we would, we said we would, we have and we will again. FSTA when?

Well done all.

I hope they've updated their intelligance recently. Wouldn't want them bombing the brewery thinking there was still a radar station there!!

"Russia Scared Britain’s Air Force by £160,000"
 

If you had any doubt that it is all for propaganda purposes na Rossiya, read this from today's Kommersant.;)

And that is my visa withdrawn...

For all their efforts they haven't managed to flush out any Typhoons yet. They keep getting Tornados for their trouble.
Be lucky
David

T64 console? T80 radar? - yep, remember them well, but at RAF Bawdsey before I remustered to aircrew! Good kit -T80 had a mercury arc rectifier producing 7Kv. It was a glass valve about 2' radius with an 'exciter' boucing around on top of 2 gallons of mercury - sparks were everywhere!
Sorry, thread drift etc.....
I believe the E3D was airborne before the Bears took off!

PD

oh, ... and another thing.....
Have you noticed the Russian press are now quoting from the Sun?
(£160,000 to get the Tornado's airborne...)

Maybe they're just trying to bankrupt the RAF..............???

Won't take long then........:E

So we can join the (morally) bankrupt government:E
Oops-not aviation related:O
Well done chaps, keep the Russkies away:D

Well, how much must the Russians be spending to do these 17 hour sorties?!

Scares me more now that i'm saving up for uni....

Ah Bawdsey! Remember 2 FC's,who were with us on a sea-angling trip, getting quite excited about a couple of Bears that had ventured quite a way down south the day before, instead of concentrating on the fishing!!

Well, it's only fair I suppose. Ronny Reagan went to a great deal of effort bankrupting the Soviet Union in weapons races during the Cold War, only fair that the other side want their turn :ok:

Shame the Bears didn't come down the North Sea, my very secret sources tell me that our best AD assets were on standby to counter. Ready, that is, until the BBMF noticed that their beloved Hurri had gone missing :E

Heard simulcast on 243.0 and 121.5, "takkatakkatakkkatakka....."

Ahh the good old days!

This isn't really that unusual, the Russkies occasionally threw a couple of pairs around the North Cape even in recent years, as I remember from my blissful bunker days. As long as they aren't launching anything....:}

Oh shoot.....
The airshow season isn't over yet.

Can't somebody with the right contacts arrange for a flypast of eight Bears with a few Tonkas in attendance?

Leuchars?