Alert crew

Other NATO/Allied air forces with a nuclear strike capability, most notably the RAF, would also keep bomber and aerial refueling aircraft on alert during the Cold War.

[2] Conversely, the principal adversary of the period, the Soviet Union, also kept their manned bomber and strategic missile forces on alert in similar fashion.

[4] If the klaxon was sounded, alert crews would exit the mole holes and literally run out to their waiting planes, which would be ready at a moment's notice to launch.

In lieu of "Christmas Tree" facilities, the smaller size of USAF fighter and fighter-interceptor aircraft enabled them to be stationed in individual alert hangars during the Cold War, typically located very close to a runway, but separate from their bomber and tanker counterparts.

However, following the airliner hijackings and subsequent attacks of September 11, 2001, both the U.S. and other NATO and Pacific Rim nations upgraded their fighter alert postures markedly.

During the Cold War, two land-based maritime patrol P-3 Orion aircraft were typically kept on Ready Alert at multiple stateside and forward deployed operating bases.