Key.Aero’s Dino Carrara interviewed Air Vice-Marshal Bob Judson (ret.) about his time flying the SEPECAT Jaguar. In this extract, he talks in detail about his time assigned to the nuclear strike role during the Cold War
Q. What it was like to be assigned to the nuclear strike role on the Jaguar?
A. When I started out on the front line with the Jaguar I went initially to 17 Squadron, just as the Tornado Force was building up at Brüggen and the Jaguar Force was winding down. The Brüggen squadrons had both a nuclear strike role and the attack role and because we sat Quick Reaction Alert [QRA], in the nuclear strike role, the first priority [for training] was to do nuclear strike. That's what we worked up as new pilots on the squadron and then you could do QRA and relieve the burden on other pilots so that everyone could do their share.
It was a pretty daunting thing because at that stage the Cold War was very real and intense in the mid-80s. You had a real sense that this was not just something you were doing to go through the motions, it was definitely a big moment. I can still vividly remember the first time I went into the Quick Reaction Alert site at Brüggen to the shelter with an aircraft in it, walking in as a 21-year-old …
