{"id":57997,"date":"2024-12-07T21:55:43","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T20:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=57997"},"modified":"2025-12-07T01:55:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T00:55:02","slug":"the-qra-service-of-the-spanish-air-force-the-system-that-protects-spains-airspace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/12\/07\/the-qra-service-of-the-spanish-air-force-the-system-that-protects-spains-airspace\/","title":{"rendered":"The QRA service of the Spanish Air Force, the system that protects Spain's airspace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the main missions of the Spanish Air Force is to defend Spain's airspace, a mission in which it uses fighter aircraft.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/12\/03\/the-spanish-air-force-the-f-35-and-the-characteristics-of-three-possible-alternatives\/\">The Spanish Air Force, the F-35 and the characteristics of three possible alternatives<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/10\/17\/the-pre-flight-check-and-cockpit-of-a-spanish-ef-18bm-fighter-explained-by-its-pilot\/\">The pre-flight check and cockpit of a Spanish EF-18BM fighter explained by its pilot<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>To carry out this defense, <strong>the Spanish Air Force has an alarm system known as QRA (Quick Reaction Alert)<\/strong>. This system is operational <strong>24 hours a day, 365 days a year<\/strong>, and its purpose is to provide armed aircraft ready to take off in a few minutes in order <strong>to intercept, identify and intervene aircraft in flight<\/strong>, in case they are a threat to national security or fly without identifying themselves and without respecting international aviation regulations.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54188413037_379fc6e9b7_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>There are five fighter wings of the Air Force that are part of this alarm service.<\/strong> Four of these fighter wings are part of the <strong>Air Combat Command (MACOM)<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Wing 11<\/strong>, based in Mor\u00f3n (Seville), equipped with Eurofighter Typhoon.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wing 12<\/strong>, based in Torrej\u00f3n de Ardoz (Madrid), equipped with EF-18M Hornet.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wing 14<\/strong>, based in Albacete, equipped with Eurofighter Typhoon.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wing 15<\/strong>, based in Zaragoza, equipped with EF-18M Hornet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54189583919_099c0bc006_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The fifth unit is attached to the <strong>Canary Islands Air Command (MACAN)<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Wing 46<\/strong>, based in Gando (Gran Canaria), equipped with EF-18A+ Hornet (above), which is already planned to be replaced with Eurofighter Typhoon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When on alert duty, <strong>these units must be able to get two aircraft into the air within a maximum of 15 minutes<\/strong> in the event of receiving what NATO calls an Alpha Scramble (A-SCR), <strong>a high-priority alert caused by a potentially dangerous aircraft<\/strong>, flying with the transponder off, without communicating a flight plan or because it has suddenly changed route without reporting.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53071260642_a3c3549d5d_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>This system protects Spaniards from potential air threats at all times.<\/strong> Air Force pilots and ground personnel are on alert every day to take off as soon as they receive an alert, whether it is a working day, Christmas or any other time of the year. <strong>It is a service that many Spaniards are unaware of,<\/strong> and that does not receive much publicity, despite the fact that it serves to safeguard our peace and security. <strong>You can see here a video from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@flybywire-aviation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fly By Wire Aviation<\/a> that shows the takeoff and landing of two EF-18M fighters from Wing 12,<\/strong> one of the units in charge of this QRA service:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Despegue y Aterrizaje de dos EF-18 Hornet del Ala 12\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ScQmfR64O-E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Photos: Ej\u00e9rcito del Aire.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the main missions of the Spanish Air Force is to defend Spain&#8217;s airspace, a mission in which it uses fighter aircraft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,11546],"tags":[23227,1247,3546,3544,1240,7389,1248,6923,5922,1239,11875],"class_list":["post-57997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-military-aviation","tag-air-alarm-service","tag-ala-11","tag-ala-12","tag-ala-14","tag-ala-15","tag-ala-46","tag-eurofighter-typhoon","tag-mando-aereo-de-canarias-macan","tag-mando-aereo-de-combate-macom","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-ef-18-hornet","tag-spanish-air-force"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-12 02:46:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}