History Quick Reaction Alert

1 history

1.1 germany
1.2 italy
1.3 spain
1.4 united kingdom
1.5 2012 olympics

history

quick reaction alert current development scrambling raf fighter command in battle of britain.

germany

raf wildenrath provided air defence cover royal air force germany (rafg), flew phantoms 92 sqn , 19 sqn until 1991. on 25 may 1982, raf phantom xv422 of 92 sqn shot down raf jaguar xx963 of 14 sqn raf bruggen sidewinder, on germany, mistake when phantom pilot did not realise armed.

italy

the first country put typhoon onto qra duty italy on 16 december 2005, 4º stormo of ix gruppo; 36º stormo followed on 1 july 2007 , 10 gruppo on 1 july 2010. typhoons replace f-16 @ trapani may 2012.

spain

111 sqn put first typhoon on qra duty in july 2008, followed 142 sqn of ala 14, , later 141 sqn.

united kingdom

in 1950s , 1960s, training fighter controller in uk @ mrs bawdsey (raf bawdsey); main central control known adoc (similar usa s , canada s norad @ peterson air force base) monitored uk air defence region (uk adr). rotor system developed in 1950s. before computers arrived in 1970s, russian aircraft plotted on map, wraf personnel. 11 group (at raf bentley priory 1968 , raf high wycombe 1972) looked after uk s air defence until 1990s; high wycombe today has european air group.

lightning f.3 xp694 of 29 sqn @ raf wattisham in september 1972

every qra alert required victor tanker raf marham in norfolk, codename dragonfly. 1 fighter squadron on qra 6 month shifts. phantom had better range lightning, , had far-better down radar, lightning had better performance. raf phantom variant had spey engines, not intentionally designed aircraft, , gave lower performance; had advanced jam-resistant inertial navigation system raf phantoms not take off inertial system had align first. lightning left service in 1988 , phantom in 1992. when tornado f.3 arrived did raf qra duty have aircraft had complete night-vision capabilities , connect sentry aircraft.

qra pilot @ raf leuchars in october 2010

in 1960s, southern q @ maintained lightnings of 5 sqn @ raf binbrook , of 29 sqn , 111 squadron @ raf wattisham. southern q rotated around 3 raf bases. raf leeming took on southern q raf coningsby in 1988. 11 sqn left raf leeming in october 2005, on 29 june 2007, 3 sqn @ raf coningsby took on southern q tornados of 25 sqn @ raf leeming in north yorkshire, typhoons of 3 sqn having first scramble on 17 august 2007 when intercepted russian bear; 3 sqn took on of southern q 1 april 2008. in august 2007 russians had begun launch long-distance patrols after 15-year hiatus. typhoons arrived @ raf leuchars 6 sqn 6 september 2010, performing first qra scramble on 2 january 2011, typhoons joining 1 sqn 15 september 2012. 6 sqn moved lossiemouth in june 2014, 1 sqn moving in august 2014. qra north moved raf leuchars raf lossiemouth on 1 september 2014. first qra sortie lossiemouth on 19 september 2014 6 sqn.

2012 olympics

to cover security 2012 summer olympics, part of qra south briefly moved raf coningsby raf northolt.

typhoon of 3 sqn intercepts russian flanker sukhoi su-27 on baltic states on 17 june 2014; aircraft @ Šiauliai march 2014 operation azotize