RAF Lossiemouth jets scrambled to 'unidentified aircraft'
 

RAF jets have been scrambled to intercept unidentified aircraft off the north of Scotland.

Typhoons from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray and a Voyager fuel tanker from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire are involved in the mission.

More here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...tland-60231014


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5350249d5b.jpg

Sorry, not news. Normal part of the day job.

Sorry, but superb photograph.

Yep, it just looked like more than that initially but turns out to be 4 of our comrades after all.

Agreed. Things have come to a pretty pass, however, when the Aeronautica Militare Italiana is mounting Northern QRA.

Convenient distraction straight after PMQs.

AMI have been doing Northern QRA from KEF for years as have other NATO nations since the USAF pulled out their permanent detachment there
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Air_Policing

Quite, but the news story is about RAF aircraft. From Lossie.

Could a Voyager not be kept at Lossie for Q, how much is the flying time from Brize to the normal intercept area?

About an hour. Usually less.

Completely crackers! So that's 2 hours transit time (out and RTB) to be where they are needed to support 99% of real interceptions.

Maybe the Italians have changed sides again, and that Typhoon shown was the intercept target.
:}

The story I heard is that this is newsworthy as it happened at the same time as BoJo was on the phone to Putin about Ukraine. Not sure if this is true?

Marcettiman # 11

If Voyager deployed to Lossie it requires Groundcrew and Aircrew who stay for the duration ( 14 days ?) of the detachment. They are then not available for other work or
training. This can cause problems with Flying Currency or Simuator requirements. Aircrew can not be easily swapped to cover these or other service requirements. If
the aircraft sit on the ground unused for long periods it causes problems for the Engineers for Fleet Management.
The aircraft will need a suitable Parking Area with special Aircraft Ground Equipment ( De icers,Toilet Truck,Tug, Giraffe etc) not required by resident Fighter Squadrons.
Will also need a stock of spares and tools, as well as accomodation.
This has been considered many times since Victor 1 days in the 60's, and rejected as too expensive and complicated. Unless aircraft swap overs are done during routine
AAR training sorties you could actually fly more transit hours than you save if activity is low. Swap outs and Receiver AAR Training requirements do not neccessarily coincide
Interceptions are not always to the North. The Voyager may be needed over the North or Irish Seas.

Always been so. Not a problem. Assuming a tanker is available:

Q1 scrambles to reach the edge of the UKADR 1 hour (transit time) before penetration time.

Tanker scrambles and passes overhead LM 1 hour later and picks up Q2 as they do so.

Q1, having made original intercept, either passes them RTB as they take over the task or plugs and returns north with Q2 if a pair is required.

If the tanker is delayed then Q2 scrambles 1 hour after Q1 to take over the task and hopefully Q1 can meet the tanker before having to RTB, if not then it should arrive to support Q2 before it has to RTB. Meanwhile Q3 will be being generated, if necessary, to scramble 1 hour after Q2.

There were many years post 1982 (all at ASI) and 1990 GWI) when no tankers were available at all - the task was still covered by generating and scrambling more Q aircraft as required.

ISTR this formed the basis for one of the Individual Problem Solving exercises at OASC about 30-odd years ago.

The problems were normally about a group of scouts in the desert with a broken-down jeep and they needed to get home, but this was cooler.

You were the pilot of an F3, you had your range and endurance and a contact to intercept, you also had to work out when you needed to meet the tanker while remaining above minimum fuel state.

Does anyone have a copy of that...?

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.

QRA and tanker up again today on a rerun of yesterday.

I presume the Bears are out exercising with the Northern Fleet task group.

https://tinyurl.com/5e3n5jzp

https://news.sky.com/story/russian-b...-jets-12531866

I’m trying to work out who controls thrust in the AAR vid. Unless it’s not the prodding part