"UK fighter jets scrambled to intercept Russian bombers" Topic

"Two Russian Bear long-range bombers flying close to UK airspace were intercepted by RAF Typhoon fighter jets, according to Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The Typhoons were scrambled from bases at Lossiemouth in Scotland and Coningsby in eastern England on Wednesday after the Russian bombers were detected flying over the Channel to the south of the UK, the MoD said.

"The Russian planes were escorted by the RAF until they were out of the UK area of interest," the ministry's Thursday statement said, Reuters reported. "At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into UK sovereign airspace."…"
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Amicalement
Armand

BBC is running this story this morning: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31053371

"Russia has dismissed claims its planes caused "disruption to civil aviation" in the UK this week, saying its actions were not "threatening" or "disruptive".

In a statement, the Russian embassy in the UK said ambassador Alexander Yakovenko had met with British officials to discuss the issue. The statement said: "This flight (as all other routine flights of the Russian military aircraft) was carried out in strict compliance with the international legal norms including international flight rules and regulations, without violation of other countries' airspace, therefore it cannot be regarded as threatening, destabilising or disruptive."

Interesting interpretation. The two Tu-95 Bear H came within 25 miles of the UK coast, travelling from the north, past the west coast of Ireland and to the English Channel They then turned and went back the way they had come. They did not file a flight plan, did not have their transponders switched on and "weren't talking to air traffic control"…

"Former RAF pilot Andrew Brookes, who is a fellow at defence think tank The Royal United Services Institute, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme similar incidents had happened in other parts of the world. He added: "The Russians are coming back on to the world stage, they've cranked up an air force that they have neglected for many years, and they are basically strutting their stuff around the globe."

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there had been a sharp increase in the number of times Russian planes were intercepted by members. He said: "Last year, allied aircraft intercepted Russian planes over 400 times. Over 150 of these intercepts were conducted by Nato's Baltic air policing mission. That's about four times as many as in 2013. So we are staying vigilant."

So it does seem to be a deliberate attempt to show thier presence on the world stage. However while it seems that while they may be playing within the letter of the law, the lack of flight plans and transponders in a very busy area of civil aviation is an accident asking to happen…

It's a shame that data on interceptions only went back to 2005. Would be interesting to compare to, say, 1965.

Surely this is just a combination of training and a probing of response times activity? Not very friendly, perhaps, but not that unusual.

One problem is that the international rules were writte at a time when civilian air control was still operating primary search radar (PSR)networks, secondary search radar (SSR)and transponders were just usefull support systems. Today just about everyone relies soley on SSR & transponders for long range coverage. While the Russians are very deliberately abusing the rules to make a show of force the problem is partly self created. I can't comment on the English Channel but I know for a fact that had the Swedish & Danish civilian PSR networks available in the early 90's still existed some of the Baltic incidents would have been far less problematic.

Why bother with the cost of intercepting them, just let them come into the air space then shoot them down. Think of how much 400 intercepts cost, sending a multi-million dollar fighter to intercept a 1950's era bomber-the Russians win every time they do this.

To quote an SBS friend of mine when speaking to a US colleague who had made a similar statement regarding small boats, "that may be OK in Dodge City but in the civilised world its just not on, old chap"

Oh, and of course they don't enter "sovereign air space" anyway

Typical Sun Tzu tactics.

Appear to show strength when you are weak, and everyone can see the value of the falling ruble, and the spot price for oil, so…..

They're doing the same thing to us on this side of the pond, as well as the Canadians.

Also, the Russians and Chinese are doing the same to Japan as well.

I do agree with GROSSMAN.

Russians used to shoot our planes down, frequently, even when we didn't enter their airspace on some occasions.

Oh, and of course they don't enter "sovereign air space" anyway

No, they instead enter the Air Defense Identification Zone and then refuse to talk to controllers, which is grounds for an intercept and escort to landing for a "talking to."

Or just blowing them out of the sky if they were on a missile launch profiles.