UK QRA questions – anyone who can answer them is a genius!

1) Post Cold War, the RAF went from separate Northern Q (Leuchars) and Southern Q (rotating Binbrook>Wattisham>Coningsby) to Northern Q ONLY, with crews from Coningsby and Leeming augmenting the Leuchars squadrons.

When did Southern QRA end? Binbrook in 1987 or 1988, Wattisham in 1991 or 1992, and Coningsby in about 1988? Or did Leeming briefly have a southern QRA commitment at this time? When did it start and end?

2) Did a Southern QRA briefly stand up at Coningsby again in ‘about 1998’? Or was there no Southern Q until the day after 9/11?

3) Southern QRA (Leeming) F3s seem to have had SkyFlash in April 2006, but to have switched to AMRAAM by August.

Does anyone have photos that show QRA jets with SkyFlash after April, or with AMRAAM before August?

4) When did Leuchars and 1435 Flight go to AMRAAM?

5) Didn’t the QRA ‘scramble’ requirement used to be tighter than ten minutes, at the height of the Cold War? I’m not sure, since I remember talk of ten minutes from the Sqn ops buildings at Binbrook, and less from the accomodation adjacent to the Q-shed. Do I remember five minutes? I also remember talk of Wattisham’s response time going from ten to fifteen minutes when they moved from the Q-shed to QRA from a HAS.

6) Was there a brief period (post Cold War, pre 9/11) when QRA ended altogether? Or when the reaction time requirement stretched significantly?

7) I seem to remember a long gap with no activity by the Russians at all after the Cold War. When was the first post Cold War QRA intercept of a Russian bomber? (I remember a big deal being made about it, and dimly recall that it was made by a lady F3 pilot). When had the previous intercept been – how long was the gap?