Air Power 2017

IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST – AT HOME AND ABROAD

40 AIR POWER 2017 21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS

Every day of the year, 24 hours a day, two pairs of Eurofighter Typhoon

fast jets are at a few moments’ notice to get airborne and defend the

UK against any potential air threat. Alan Dron talks to Air Vice-Marshal

Gerry Mayhew to find out why this is necessary and what it entails

UK FIRST AND

FOREMOST

I

mages of Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoons

escorting Russian aircraft near to the

coastline of the British Isles have cropped

up in the press with increasing frequency

lately, but the situation has remained consistent

over recent years, says Air Vice-Marshal Gerry

Mayhew, who commands the RAF’s 1 Group. “I

wouldn’t say there’s been a significant change.

For some months you could have nothing, then

you could get three in a week, depending on

what’s happening in the strategic context.”

Warnings of approaching Russian military aircraft

can come from any of the UK’s NATO partners. When

they do, the standard procedure is to launch two

Typhoons from one of the UK’s two main air defence

bases – RAF Lossiemouth in northern Scotland, or RAF

Coningsby in Lincolnshire – together with a Voyager

tanker aircraft from RAF Brize Norton. Topping up

the Typhoons’ fuel tanks can occur either before or

after an interception, depending on circumstances.

The most usual types of aircraft intercepted,

according to Air Vice-Marshal Mayhew, are Russian

long-range bombers such as the turboprop Tu-95

Bear or the jet-powered Tu-160 Blackjack. “Occasionally

something more exotic might appear on the

horizon,” says Air Vice-Marshal Mayhew. “MiG-31

Foxhounds – long-range reconnaissance and fighter

aircraft – are still out there.” When the Typhoons are

in their NATO air policing role, providing air defence

assets for the Baltic nations, for example, more

modern Russian fighter-bombers and intelligence-

gatherers are also among the types intercepted.

READY TO RESPOND

Typhoons are held at five minutes’ notice in Quick

Reaction Alert (QRA) shelters at Lossiemouth and

Coningsby, with pilots spending 24-hour stints in

‘ready rooms’ alongside their aircraft. Apart from

being scrambled to intercept military targets

of interest approaching the UK, the most usual

reason for an alert is the loss of communication

between a civilian aircraft and air traffic control.

With memories of the September 2001 attacks

on the United States still very much alive, no chances

are taken with aircraft that do not respond to ground

controllers. “We’re called to cockpit almost daily for

communications failures,” says Air Vice-Marshal Mayhew,

“but in terms of launching to escort an aircraft, it’s rare.”

An even rarer eventuality is having to go supersonic

over the UK when time is of the essence, as the resulting

sonic boom invariably produces a flurry of calls to local

police forces. When requirements do force the pilots to

punch the throttles, however, “the majority of feedback

we get is generally positive. People recognise we’ve

got a job to do and only go supersonic as a last resort.”

Terrorists seizing an aircraft – perhaps a small

one operating from a UK airstrip – is a potential

threat scenario that the QRA units train for, both in

the simulator and ‘live’. “We’ll train against something

that’s very slow-moving, as well as high-speed

air traffic. Some lessons that we learned at the

The 2015 Strategic Defence

and Security Review decreed

that two extra Typhoon

squadrons should be formed