Red Flag ‘77 - 07

After every sortie, all mission participants gathered for a comprehensive debrief led by the Red Flag directing staff, which included reports by each lead element involved and by the aggressors and ground-defence operators. In those early days, before the current plethora of very comprehensive electronic tracking and scoring systems, claims could be quite droll if well argued, and stories became quite entertaining, particularly when air-to-air or ground engagement films were available. There was little room for exaggeration. It was amusing whilst instructive and was an excellent training vehicle in which each unit’s pedigree soon became apparent.

The 208 Squadron contribution went down extremely well, The radio silence procedure caused doubt in some quarters as to whether the Squadron had actually been in the target area. Very few air kills had been claimed against the Squadron and the ground defenders on the EW (electronic warfare) ranges took great delight at leaving their control cabins to see some spectacular runs against their positions; they even produced video at the daily mass debrief of Buccaneers screaming past their radar heads to prove it. The Squadron crews used map, stopwatch and some major ‘mark one eyeball’ activity to navigate in the difficult desert terrain, which lacked pinpoint navigational fixes and gave little cover to the aircraft on fairly predictable target routes. Early spots, high speed and, when necessary, counter manoeuvring at ULL made the Buccaneers difficult targets for the aggressors to substantiate kills with their then weapons load.

The Squadron’s coordinated weapons attacks were also highly successful. The Buccaneer weapons system, which had been designed to toss a nuclear bomb against a Sverdlov cruiser, lacked much sophistication compared to modern digital computer-generated displays. Nevertheless, most Squadron pilots had developed a seaman’s eye appreciation - ‘that looks about right’ – which worked pretty well at low level and close range. Many of the attacks were aimed at suppressing airfield defences and runways using sticks of 1,000lb bombs tossed from around three miles out. One crew member remembers feeling quite elated as his four-aircraft formation was tossing from their planned direction and there, from another quadrant, was another four in a simultaneous attack tossing from their planned point; all followed by an impressive inverted ‘Red Arrows’ bomb-burst. The CBU attacks at close range against convoy targets were also great fun. By the standards of the late 1970s era the Squadron produced excellent results.

The F-5 fighters of the aggressors were small, highly manoeuvrable and, if they spotted a potential target from their high observation perch, were quickly able to convert height to speed for rapid intercepts at low level.

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