United Kingdom Quick Reaction Alert

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.