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Interception missions

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En Mort Main

Well-known member
Joined
May 12, 2006
Posts
81
Growing up in an Air Force family in Germany. (Bitburg AFB) I have always loved the drama and excitement involved in scramble and interception missions. I read in a newspaper a few months back that the Russian military is once again using the "Bear" to test air defenses. So my post is just a bunch of questions concerning scramble and interceptions.
How long does a typical scramble take to get airbourne? How many are typically launched? What weaponry do the aircraft carry? Are the aircraft at their discretion for speed and course? (meaning are the allowed supersonic speed, subject to control instructions by atc?).
Thank you

En Mort Main
 
Growing up in an Air Force family in Germany. (Bitburg AFB) I have always loved the drama and excitement involved in scramble and interception missions. I read in a newspaper a few months back that the Russian military is once again using the "Bear" to test air defenses. So my post is just a bunch of questions concerning scramble and interceptions.
How long does a typical scramble take to get airbourne? How many are typically launched? What weaponry do the aircraft carry? Are the aircraft at their discretion for speed and course? (meaning are the allowed supersonic speed, subject to control instructions by atc?).
Thank you

En Mort Main

Interceptions are now quit common in the EU, especially the French are quick to intercept. A few years ago I was coming out of Barcelona, a company aircraft was being called over France on 121,5 several times.He wasn't responding to calls on his assinged frequency We were monitoring this. At some point a broadcast was being made that the flight would be intercepted by the military. I was amazed, between the time the broadcast was being made that he would be intercepted and listening on 121.5 and hearing a darth fader voice going through the indentification proces was maybe 10 minutes.

Respect, that was fast!!
 
I was stationed at Bitburg AB for 5 years. We sat “Zulu” alert there (as opposed to the “victor” alert fighters who sat nuke alert around the theater).

We were flying F-15C aircraft loaded w/ 4 AIM-7Ms and 4 AIM-9Ms, plus the normal 940 rounds of 20 MM when I first got there. Once the AMRAAM came on board it was a 2 – AIM-7, 4 – AIM-120, 2 – AIM-9 load out. There were also 2 other F-15Cs doing the same thing in the Netherlands at Soesterberg AB.

Required airborne time was 5 minutes from the horn going off until lift-off. We “cocked” the jets with a stored INS alignment, our harness and helmet in the jet and all switched set to start.

4 jets and 4 pilots sat 24 hour shifts and slept in the alert facility because it was 5 minutes to airborne around the clock. We used fireman’s poles to get down from the second or third floor as needed. All 4 scrambled when we got the horn. The 2 primaries would launch if they’re jets were good to go. If not, 3 and 4 would launch. The 2 who were left re-cocked their jets and got ready to go again if needed.

During weekdays we would usually “Tango scramble” (training) twice a day. That way all 4 guys got to fly during that tour. “Alpha scrambles” were not that common but happened now and then. Usually it was a wayward Cessna wandering into the buffer zone or just plain lost flying were he shouldn’t.
Normal scramble ops for an Alpha scramble was a tech order AB climb at 350 kias to .95M, level at around FL300 and accelerate to about 1.5M. Lead would keep it back a burner stage or so just to let #2 get some closure and catch up (since he was probably .5 to 1 NM behind). Speed and altitude was at our discretion on Alpha scrambles.

GCI (ground control intercept) controllers were available to aid in the intercept and we would usually work with them on the “Tango scrambles” for their training. Real world intercepts and training stuff was done using GCI and our on board radars.
If there was no GCI in need of training on Tangos, we could just sweep Germany VFR looking for other military aircraft to engage (simulated of course).

It was a blast. :D
 
I was stationed at Bitburg AB for 5 years. We sat “Zulu” alert there (as opposed to the “victor” alert fighters who sat nuke alert around the theater).

We were flying F-15C aircraft loaded w/ 4 AIM-7Ms and 4 AIM-9Ms, plus the normal 940 rounds of 20 MM when I first got there. Once the AMRAAM came on board it was a 2 – AIM-7, 4 – AIM-120, 2 – AIM-9 load out. There were also 2 other F-15Cs doing the same thing in the Netherlands at Soesterberg AB.

Required airborne time was 5 minutes from the horn going off until lift-off. We “cocked” the jets with a stored INS alignment, our harness and helmet in the jet and all switched set to start.

4 jets and 4 pilots sat 24 hour shifts and slept in the alert facility because it was 5 minutes to airborne around the clock. We used fireman’s poles to get down from the second or third floor as needed. All 4 scrambled when we got the horn. The 2 primaries would launch if they’re jets were good to go. If not, 3 and 4 would launch. The 2 who were left re-cocked their jets and got ready to go again if needed.

During weekdays we would usually “Tango scramble” (training) twice a day. That way all 4 guys got to fly during that tour. “Alpha scrambles” were not that common but happened now and then. Usually it was a wayward Cessna wandering into the buffer zone or just plain lost flying were he shouldn’t.
Normal scramble ops for an Alpha scramble was a tech order AB climb at 350 kias to .95M, level at around FL300 and accelerate to about 1.5M. Lead would keep it back a burner stage or so just to let #2 get some closure and catch up (since he was probably .5 to 1 NM behind). Speed and altitude was at our discretion on Alpha scrambles.

GCI (ground control intercept) controllers were available to aid in the intercept and we would usually work with them on the “Tango scrambles” for their training. Real world intercepts and training stuff was done using GCI and our on board radars.
If there was no GCI in need of training on Tangos, we could just sweep Germany VFR looking for other military aircraft to engage (simulated of course).

It was a blast. :D


Did you ever intercept a Bear? I hear the noise from the props is deafening.....
 
Did you ever intercept a Bear? I hear the noise from the props is deafening.....

Never had the pleasure but I have heard the prop noise is audible in the cockpit while flying nearby. "Deafening" might be a stretch - although I'm sure that was the case for the actual Bear flight crew. I can't imagine that any of them still had full hearing capability after flying thousands of hours in that beast.

That mission was more common for the Air Defense units in Iceland and Alaska. If we had encountered a Bear flying out of Germany, that probably would have meant things were getting pretty ugly w/ the USSR.
 

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