RAF ` Q force ` in the news

not really a revalation , but offical confirmation

bbc_news

i cannot help thinking that open discussion of such capabilities serves no real purpose -

i do not feel any safer for this revalation - in fact less so

i suspected that such a QRF capacity was on stand by 24/7 - only now any scroat who means harm to our country has an inkling of how to plan an attact to avoid it


or am i gust being paranoid ?

[edit ] i cannot do UBB code on the first try

[edit on 18-10-2005 by ignorant_ape]

Good article.

That is why I truly believe that the fourth 9/11 plane was in fact shot down over PA. I do not blame them for this type of planning, the US also has a plan similar. The only jets in the US that are armed are those that are to protect D.C.

But that is just me.

They have had interceptors on 10min standby since the cold war, they probably slackened off after 1991, but I guess they have just picked up where they left off again. It's not really that big of a deal is it, or even a secret? How do you propose a Terrorist could use this information against us?

R988 :

yup we have always had QFR interceptors - but during the cold war - they were almost all pointed north - to covere the area of airspace we were expected to defend under the nato NADGE doctrine

a friend who was a seneror aircraft man working on phantom engines [ showing out age ] told me that :

" a gnat couldnt fly out of the barents sea with out us knowing .... but if the french invaded we would only know wnen they landed "

the RAF expected that any attack coming from other directions would have to fight its way through german , belgian and dutch airspace and thier response would give us time to act

since the end of the cold war - our capacity has shurunk


as for what use such info would be to terrorists

if they know the starting location , response times and top speed of the RAF resonse to an airborne threat - then they will pick thu=ier targets and time thier missions so that once they " tip thier hand " their plan will be completed before the known air defences can reach the location or intercept thier route

does that make it clear ?