QRA intercepts off Bournemouth

[VulcanDriver]

Normally its quite sleepy here just the usual Ryanair and EasyJet flights and GA flying around. Then with a mighty roar two F-15s from LN screams overhead on an intercept course in support of two RAF Typhoons. Seems there were Russian Bears prowling off our shores! RN frigates picked them up on radar and asked for fighters. The fighters escorted them well away from UK airspace. This a first along the south coast of the UK.

[mikewmac]

Normally its quite sleepy here just the usual Ryanair and EasyJet flights and GA flying around. Then with a mighty roar two F-15s from LN screams overhead on an intercept course in support of two RAF Typhoons. Seems there were Russian Bears prowling off our shores! RN frigates picked them up on radar and asked for fighters. The fighters escorted them well away from UK airspace. This a first along the south coast of the UK.

John,

Sounds exciting! Back in the day our F-102 "Deuces" used to escort Russians Bears down the northeastern coast of the USA more frequently than you would believe. Some of our local barbershops even had Russian Bear photos hanging on the walls taken during some of these unpublicized escort missions.

[raclim]

Is it normal that the USAF operate a QRA element at Lakenheath?

I thought the USAF stopped the QRA task in europe after the end of the cold war (apart from the baltic and icelandic air policing)

[John Young]

I visited Lakenheath in 2013 and sat in with the controllers and asked that question. It was a categorical no, they don't participate in QRA. I don't know if that's since changed.

Listening to the BBC News today, they reported RAF Typhoons doing the escorting.

John

[Garysb]

Perhaps the F-15's were just after a selfie

Gary

[mikewmac]

I visited Lakenheath in 2013 and sat in with the controllers and asked that question. It was a categorical no, they don't participate in QRA. I don't know if that's since changed.

Listening to the BBC News today, they reported RAF Typhoons doing the escorting.

John

John,

Back in the day during my tenure in the USAF and the VT ANG we called what I think was the equivalent to the RAF QRA program an Alert program with two birds on 5 minute alert status, 1 bird on 15 minute alert status and 1 bird on 1 hour status 24/7. Maybe the USAF controllers were playing a semantics game with you in order to not violate any of their security protocols. In today's world our American military does not want anyone to know what they do, how they do it and when they do it, not even an old airman like me with the emphasis on old.

[Firebird]

The F-15s could just simply be tourists.

I remember back in my day, when the Cuba milk runs around the cape were common place, that on one occasion a large number of Bears were tracked going to Cuba. I remember that every man and his dog were trying to organize sorties to the area that the route passed through just to get a looksie.

A lot of aircraft from all over the UK got snapshots.

[VulcanDriver]

Our local MP said in the local paper today that the F-15s were scrambled as part of a joint interception involving NATO aircraft. The Bears turned and were escorted until the Danish Air Force took over.