"RAF Typhoon jets scramble to intercept two Russian ..." Topic

…'Blackjack' bombers in UK airspace.

"Royal Air Force Typhoon jets have flown from RAF Lossiemouth to intercept Russian 'Blackjack' aircraft flying in international air space.

RAF Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) fighter aircraft scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland yesterday to meet two Russian aircraft.

The Typhoon pilots visually identified the two Russian aircraft and escorted them whilst in the UK area of interest…"

Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

If only we had some nice, metal Bears, Bisons, Backfires, and Blackjacks in 1/600th scale.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I wonder why Mirror writes "in UK air space" in the title of the article, while article itself definitely says "interntional air space?"
putting a video from Russian Zvezda channel in their report…and this video was definitely made at:
– different time
- on different plane ;)
How on earth you can mix a jet with turboprop?
At least Telegraph got it right…
link
…but with the same video? come on….;)

That's because standards of British journalism are generally -poor when it comes to such distinctions. As you say, they don't enter British sovereign airspace (unlike Baltic and Scandinavian sovereign airspace, which they have violated in recent months).

However, your countrymen do routinely enter the British ADIZ and controlled civil airspace without filing flight-plans, without switching transponders on and without responding to or obeying the instructions of civil air traffic controllers or the legal military authorities.

And screwing around in controlled airspace with your ing transponders off is a great way to cause a midair collision, Barin.

US spy planes in controlled airspace (18kft up to 65kft) have their transponders on. Blackbirds and U2s did not have their transponders on up high, but did turn them back on before coming down to fly with the mere mortals.

While I agree that our bombers and fighter planes could have their trasnsponders on, spy planes on "another" side are not always having their transponders on, like it was in June, over Baltic when RC-135 had it switched off.

Russian media normally don't emphasize on whether transponders are on or off, as the task is still track the intruder and keep it out of Russian zone of control.

And if we're talking about answering/following the orders of ground control, there was a very interesting story, which was poorly covered in the West – I was never able to find much details – when 2 US C-17 violated Finnish airspace, and were there not for a minute, like Il-76 earlier this year, but more than 15 min…
link

An interesting article on the Russian strategy behind these flights:

Putin's Plan to Deter Hawks in Washington

Russia's intensified military overflights have caused Western consternation. Moscow's strategic bombers and fighters plow the unwelcoming Western skies, violating airspace across Europe, and taking cruises to the Caribbean, South East Asia, and the U.S. coast. American allies from Japan to Norway are forced to scramble constantly to identify and escort Russian aircraft out of their air identification zones. A recent spate of accidents has dampened Russia's campaign of aggravation, but it demonstrated an important point: The power to annoy should not be underestimated. When used right it works. For a low price, it can shape your adversary's perceptions.

Russia's belligerent behavior is a campaign of annoyance designed to compensate for its lack of power projection. The point of this effort is for the United States to take it seriously as a strategic adversary, a threat on the existential plane, and to make the current confrontation over Ukraine harder to sustain for European allies. The overflights are not the sole cause of changing U.S. perceptions of Russia, but they have been a consistent and steady demonstration of hostile intent. They have made the U.S. national security establishment question existing assumptions that Russia does not seek actual conflict with NATO, and that Moscow would not engage in a reckless act of aggression. This provides some evidence that the strategy is working for Moscow.

Thanks for share!.

Amicalement
Armand