Typhoons and Russians

[Skip]

anyone see this?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04 ... d=webmail7

[Pune]

from SKY so not sure how factual this is...

RAF Jet Chases Russian Planes Away From UK

Two Russian bombers which flew close to UK airspace have been chased away by an RAF jet fighter.

The aircraft, believed to be Tupolev 95s, were spotted off the coast of northeast Scotland.

They were turned away from Britain when an RAF Typhoon was scrambled from Leuchars airbase, near Dundee.

Crews stationed there are on standby to intercept unidentified aircraft at a moment's notice.

The incident comes amid heightened international tensions over the situation in Ukraine, following the annexation of Crimea by Russia last month.

Sky's Defence Correspondent Alistair Bunkall said foreign planes often fly close to UK airspace, with eight similar incidents reported in 2013.

"The RAF Typhoon is one of Britain's quick reaction aircraft and would have gone up, made contact with the Russian planes and ensured they did not plan to fly into British airspace," he said.

"These sorts of events happen quite regularly and that maybe surprising for some people.

"It's all about testing defences and seeing exactly what your 'enemy' is capable of."

The two Russian planes were escorted by the Typhoon, as well as military aircraft from the Netherlands and Denmark, until they flew off towards Scandinavia.

Also known as 'Bears', the aircraft - turboprop-powered bombers which also conduct airborne surveillance - have been used for more than 50 years.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "The Russian military aircraft remained in international airspace at all times and they are perfectly entitled to do so.

"Russian military flights have never entered UK sovereign airspace without authorisation."

[Skip]

sky coverage is a tiny bit better
http://news.sky.com/story/1247985/raf-j ... ay-from-uk

[GhostFlight91]

Probably happened months ago knowing the media and sky, surprised its even made the news though tbh.

[Vulcanone]

GhostFlight91

Its posted in the Heads up that they launched today.

Tim S

[jamesg23]

Three Typhoons did a very rapid take off with full burners and went vertical seconds apart from Coningsby today.

What time was this? as I counted 4 do a performance take off just after 5pm

[RichC]

Pretty much Ops Normal then..... the press/media making a mountain out of a mole hill due to the Ukraine situation. Christ sake, the Russian carrier battle group anchored of Lossiemouth and we sent a lonely destroyer to escort... they had ships off Cornwall last year and we didn't do nothing. They were flying Mig29s in and around the oil rigs in the north sea off Scotland and nothing was done.
It's the same thing, every year....

[Steven]

A total over-reaction from the press as usual under these circumstances. QRA intercepts of Russian aircraft is commonplace for the RAF. The only reason this is even being reported is due to the ongoing unrest in Ukraine. Really winds me up!

SG1: The QRA aircraft were launched from Leuchars so the Coningsby jets are not linked. Also QRA jets don't climb vertically on rotation they simply use afterburner on take-off.

Steven.

[Agent K]

its a Russian Mis Communication ... the Bears were told to go and check the UKRAINE ... and they misunderstood and thought they said the UK RAIN ! :-D

sorry .. i'll get my coat

Top drawer comment there Sir, made me laugh!

[Unknown74]

And the Daily Mail make another faux pas, The Tu-95 Bear is Supersonic................. yes well..

[POL]

Bits of it are...

[Morseman]

I've just read all these posts. Its nice to start the day with a bit of humour. Must check out the Daily Mail !

[T_J]

Netherlands military spokesman reveals that the Tu-95s encroached a half-mile into airspace. Should be a 12 nautical mile limit for the Netherlands.

Maj. Wilko Ter Horst said that the military learned around 3:50 p.m. (9:50 a.m. ET) that two Russian TU-95 bombers, known as Bears, had come a half-mile inside its airspace. A pair of Dutch F-16 military jets were then dispatched to escort the Russian planes and "ensure they (flew) out of our airspace," said Ter Horst, a Dutch military spokesman.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/23/world ... tercepted/

Currently the Russians are busy on 8090 KHz USB and the Morse markers are active on the Tu-95MS Bear H net 8029 KHz CW. Repeat flight? Hard to tell.

[Angel15]

Check the BBC websire and they have a picture of a pair of Typhoons equipped with LGB's , lol

[KINROTATE]

Did we get as far as launching a tanker? Perhaps with the Tranche 3 aircraft (conformal tank fit trials accepted), a buddy buddy option might be in the offing seeing how far north our real QRA jets will be?

[RichC]

Yes, a Voyager supported the Typhoons.

[Malcolm]

In the bad old days of the cold war, there was a "10 Bear" patch worn by crews of the Phantoms that had managed to intercept the required number of bandits. Mostly seen at Leuchars Air Day, but I can't find an image of it on line. I suspect it'll take a long time for any Tiffie crew to qualify for one.

And back in the 70's and 80s, it was unusual for a Leuchars air day to go by without a live QRA, launched from the tin huts near the ASP. We always wanted them to escort the Badger/Bison/Bear in for a flyby, but no.

[T_J]

The Ministry of Defence has released images of the intercept. The two Tu-95MS were serials RF-94130 and RF-94116

6 Squadron Typhoon Pilot Flt Lt Gary Montgomery said: "Typhoon Quick Reaction Alert stands ready to scramble at a moments notice, 24/7, all year long, to maintain the integrity of UK airspace. We scrambled on 23 April to intercept two unknown aircraft approaching the NATO Air Policing Area from the north.

"We intercepted and flew within visual range and identified them as Russian Tu-95 ‘Bear H’ aircraft. We monitored their progress, including handing them over to Danish F-16 QRA aircraft as the Bears flew towards Denmark, then continued to monitor them as they returned and then departed towards Norwegian airspace. During the sortie we air refuelled from a RAF Voyager aircraft, from RAF Brize Norton, to increase our airborne endurance. Intercepting Russian Bear aircraft is a routine occurrence for us, it’s what we do to maintain UK Sovereign airspace.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04 ... 08543.html

The Norwegians didn't scramble F-16s as the route the Tu-95s took was assessed to be far from the Norwegian coast.

Neither on the bombers’ northbound course over the North Sea towards the Barents Sea via the Norwegian Sea, the Norwegians decided not to scramble their F-16s.

“They were identified by other nations when they were on their southernmost part of the mission,” Lieutenant Colonel Ivar Moen tells BarentsObserver. He says Norway’s Joint Command Headquarters makes evaluation of each single mission before they decide to scramble F-16 or not.

“In this case they were well outside the coast,” says Moen.

http://barentsobserver.com/en/security/ ... -not-24-04

[deerhunter]

[quoteits a Russian Mis Communication ... the Bears were told to go and check the UKRAINE ... and they misunderstood and thought they said the UK RAIN ! :-D

sorry .. i'll get my coat][/quote]

[Skip]

that first picture of the Bear is nice