Red Flag ‘77 - 05

…... tended to loosen straps in order to monitor the visual threat envelope from high to low and, with considerable effort, the rear sector from two o’clock through to ten o’clock. Excellent lookout was imperative in such a clear air mass with few places to hide. If the pilot had to look into the cockpit, he warned the navigator to look ahead. At no time could both heads be diverted from the forward sector. This lesson was very quickly leamed by one of the experienced crews, who discovered this when they had a momentary lapse of concentration as they cleared the target area and were decelerating to re-join formation. Striking the telegraph wire at thirty-seven feet was a very welcome attention getter to pull-up from their induced gentle descent towards the desert floor; they were very lucky – it could have been a lot worse.

Speed was essential to aid manoeuvre, to pass through the threats quickly and to make enemy defence engagement solutions more difficult. Speeds were kept high as fuel was not in short supply, and the aircraft were carrying representative weapon war loads. Sorties were planned at 480 knots as ‘hostile’ territory was entered, and this was increased to 540 (nine nautical miles per minute) as the target area approached. Further knots could still be generated in extremis and for running out of the target area.

The Squadron always flew as constituted crews so that everyone was totally familiar with each other’s modus operandi and, for the same reason, everyone was teamed up with another crew to make a constituted pair and, further, joined with another pair as a constituted four-ship unit. Participation in Red Flag was mandated for experienced pilots with no less than 500 flying hours, who were CR (combat ready) and had completed a structured and appropriate work-up period. Accordingly, and in order to facilitate ease of programming but, more importantly, to ensure familiarity of action within formations, 208 Squadron nominated particular formation leaders who would retain that role on every mission flown. Those selected were particularly experienced crews both in terms of the role flown and hours on the Buccaneer. Wing men, each excellent low-level operators, developed supreme flexibility and skills in keeping formation integrity in all terrains and weather conditions, which allowed a little more thinking time for navigation checks and threat perception. Formation shapes varied to suit conditions and aircraft over the flat desert areas could be several miles apart, which provided a compromise between ease of passage and, importantly, made it difficult for an intercepting aircraft to identify all members. As experience developed, it was not always necessary to see a wingman to know where he was and where he would appear as he emerged from behind ground features.

At Goose Bay, the crews had learned to avoid wing flash when flying over the middle of plain ground features like lakes, dry or full, and to keep away from the valley floor by hugging the

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