Library Reference Number: 125
Phantom QRA in the Seventies and Eighties
I'm sure that there are many better qualified and more experienced old salts with tales of the Cold War to recount than me. However, I was one of the players from 1974 through to the fall of the Berlin Wall so I was certainly there and very much involved. During this time I was a navigator on F4 Phantoms based at RAF Leuchars in Fife on the east coast of Scotland and at RAF Wildenrath in West Germany - part of the second Allied Tactical Air Force (2ATAF)..
These were ringside seats for the Cold War for it was at RAF Leuchars where Northern Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) was maintained and Wildenrath was the home of Battleflight. Both were the first line of defence in peacetime with QRA being responsible for UK airspace and Battleflight reacting to any inner German border incursions.
When I started at Leuchars in 1974, QRA alternated between No 23 Sqn, which was equipped with Lightnings, and No 43(F) Sqn - the Fighting Cocks and the only air defence F4 Phantom squadron in existence at the time. As the Lightning was phased out, 111(F) Sqn converted to F4s and took over from 23 Sqn at Leuchars.
When holding alert, F4s were armed with 4 Sparrow and 4 Sidewinder missiles. In order to be able to react very quickly, the aircraft were held at a high state of readiness with cockpits personalised and little left to do other than strap-in, start the engines and go! The time-consuming checks were carried out by crews each morning when coming on duty and taking over their aircraft.
My office - the back seat, was equipped with Pentax SLR camera and my nav bag which used to hang over the front of the radar scope. Ejection seat straps were carefully set to provide easy access when strapping in and my helmet was positioned just outside the cockpit. In the UK, it was necessary to wear immersion suits (dry suits) which were rather cumbersome and hot but in Germany, we got away with flying suits and cold weather flying gear in winter.
With next-to-no exception, QRA flights took place over the sea and were frequently supported by air-to-air refuelling aircraft - the Victor and occasionally by Airborne Early Warning aircraft. This latter role was carried out by the venerable Shackelton in those days so you can imagine the notice period they required to deploy!
With the knowledge that the hooter could go at any time and that the subsequent flight might last several hours, anyone with a weak bladder had to make frequent precautionary visits to the loo. We carried pee bags - bags, aircrew, for the relief off but they were not the easiest things to use when strapped into an ejection seat with two zips and up to 5 layers of clothing to get through!
The longest QRA sortie I ever flew was whilst serving with 111 Sqn. My pilot and I clocked up seven and a half hours chasing Badger Golfs which were involved in a large scale Russian sea exercise somewhere south-west of Rockall. We intercepted two of these Russian ASM bombers as they flew en-route from the North Cape to the exercise area and escorted them for the best part of an hour before we had to break off to refuel from a Victor tanker. It was the first time we had flown with a 150mm lens on our Pentax camera and I was able to get some very interesting photographs of the Badger's ASM launcher pylons.
Night intercepts were common. Can you imagine the frustration of being woken up in the middle of the night, carrying out an intercept hundreds of miles north of the UK and not seeing a dicky-bird of the target. This happened on my very first QRA scramble. We closed to a few hundred yards range but the target had turned off all its navigation lights and we saw absolutely nothing! On another occasion, I've had powerful searchlights shone directly into my eyes at close range.
Not all scrambles resulted in intercepts; many happy times were spent making small circles in the northern sky waiting for targets which never appeared. On several of these occasions, we marvelled at the Aurora Borealis - those vertical columns of shimmering light dancing across the northern skies. It fascinated me. Sometimes, we chased hopeful radar blips or investigated winking lights at low level which turned out to be boats but I never saw any UFOs.
My second most satisfying QRA mission was against a Russian turboprop aircraft called the Coot A. Previous attempts to intercept this aircraft had failed because it turned and ran away whenever he heard any radio traffic or detected radar emissions. I believe my pilot, Chris Bagnall, and I were the first RAF crews to catch this chap following a mission using silent procedures.
The mission which I recall most fondly involved an intercept against two Bear Foxtrot ASW aircraft. We had intercepted these mighty bombers at high level whilst they were en route to their playground near Rockall. Unfortunately, we had to leave them in order to refuel just as they started a descent to low level to begin their anti submarine work.
Having descended, the Bears disappeared from radar cover so nobody knew where they were. After filling up, we proceeded south-west following their last known flightpath. We, ourselves, were then at the limit of UK radar and RT cover. Using a radio frequency which I had uncovered on a previous occasion, I was able to DF on some Russian RT. Training my radar search on that bearing, I eventually picked up a contact well below us. We descended and investigated to find one of our pals in the middle of a sonobuoy drop. We subsequently found the second Bear as well and took some very useful photographs of what they were doing.
Whereas QRA tended to involve long flights at a pace eminently suitable for gentlemen, Battleflight was very much the opposite. With a shorter reaction time to meet, we got airborne quickly and rushed at high subsonic speed to the inner German border hopefully to meet a defector or somebody who had got lost. Almost invariably, we ended up patrolling up and down our side of the border watching their guys do the same on the other side! Close contact with other aircraft was virtually unknown but it was fascinating to look down on the border's miles and miles of fencing and defences.
During my Cold War career, I intercepted 29 Russian Bear, Badger and Coot aircraft altogether. My longest flight was seven and a half hours covering over 3000 nms. My shortest flight was ten minutes (the jet had a major problem immediately after take-off)! Oh, I never did use the pee bag!