British Tornados scrambled to intercept Russian jets nearing British airspace
Daily Mail
6th September 2007
www.dailymail.co.uk
RAF fighter pilots were scrambled to intercept a formation of eight Russian long-range bombers approaching Britain yesterday as President Putin ordered his most dramatic display of military sabre-rattling to date. Rising tensions between Moscow and the West has seen Russian 'Bear' bombers probing UK air defences on at least three separate occasions this year - reviving scenes which were once commonplace during the Cold War.

But the latest incursion during the early hours of the morning marked the first time the Royal Air Force has been confronted with so many aircraft at once. UK commanders responded with their own show of force, dispatching four quick-reaction Tornado F3 jet fighters along with an airborne early warning radar aircraft, accompanied by a refuelling tanker.

The Russian intruders turned back before breaching the boundary of UK airspace 12 miles off the Scottish coast, but RAF insiders admitted Moscow's apparent determination to carry on flexing its military muscles was beginning to give some cause for concern.

One source said: "We are more than capable of intercepting these flights whenever the Russians care to drop by, but the longer this goes on the more chance there is of some accident which could inflame the situation. Inside: Cat and Mouse Game? more..

"Russia is showing us they can still do these flights and we're showing them they can't approach the UK unchallenged. It's an old game, and all the pilots on both sides are professionals who know the score, but having lots of semi-hostile aircraft close to each other in the sky has never been without risk - especially when the condition of the Russian airframes is questionable. They're getting pretty old."

In the latest incident the Russian formation was spotted on radar in the early hours flying south from the Arctic Ocean - having taken off from their base at Murmansk.

The TU-95 'Bear' bomber is a long-range strike aircraft and a Cold War icon, designed to carry nuclear bombs and now often used as a spyplane. When they entered airspace designated as NATO's 'policing area' the Norwegian air force scrambled four F-16 jet fighters to shadow them.

As the eight Russian bombers continued south RAF controllers scrambled a pair of Tornado F3 fighters from their base at Leeming in North Yorkshire, where dedicated 'Quick Reaction Alert' jets are on standby around the clock.

Because of the scale of the Russian formation a second pair of F3s followed and an RAF E3-D Sentry aircraft - a huge airborne radar platform which can track targets 300miles away and act as a flying command and control post - was also scrambled from its base at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.

Minutes later it was joined by a VC-10 air-to-air refuelling tanker flying from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, enabling the British jets to remain airborne for hours. The Ministry of Defence would not say how close the Russians came to UK territorial airspace but confirmed that they turned back before the boundary was breached.

Russia's defence ministry confirmed later that a total of 14 Russian strategic bombers had started long-range routine patrol operations on Wednesday evening over the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic. Relations between London and Moscow are at their worst since the Cold War ended. Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB bodyguard suspected of murdering emigre Alexander Litvinenko in London last year, led to tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats from both countries.

Russia's ties with the West are also strained over issues including energy supples, America's plans for missile defence bases in the Czech Republic and Poland and Moscow's treatment of Western companies trying to do business there.

President Vladimir Putin announced last month that he had ordered a resumption of Russia's long-range bomber patrols after a gap of almost two decades after the Soviet Union collapsed. His tougher stance on foreign policy - coupled with the publication of official photographs showing him fishing bare-chested in a Russian river - have boosted his popularity at home.

In May the RAF scrambled Tornado fighters to intercept a single Bear bomber apparently watching Nato naval exercises off Scotland, and last month more Tornado and Typhoon jets turned back another Russian Bear.