Too close for comfort: RAF top guns see off Putin’s bombers
THIS is the moment RAF Typhoons intercepted two Russian long-range bombers yesterday as they headed straight for British airspace.
As the Blackjack Tupolev Tu160s got within 46 miles of Aberdeen and 69 miles of Newcastle, fighters were sent from RAF Lossiemouth in north-east Scotland.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said last night that the ‘act of aggression’ was ‘another reminder of the very serious military challenge that Russia poses us today’. The RAF ‘quick-reaction alert’ Typhoons were accompanied by a Voyager air-to-air refuelling aircraft.
They shadowed the Blackjacks, which refused to talk to air-traffic control, making them a hazard to other planes.
Other Nato nations had monitored the Russians across from Denmark as they passed through international airspace before they were met by the Typhoons over the North Sea. They were escorted northwards out of the UK’s ‘ area of interest’, and did not enter UK sovereign airspace. The Ministry of Defence refused to say how many Typhoons were deployed.
The supersonic Blackjacks have made repeated sorties near the UK as Russia steps up military activity in the region.
The RAF routinely intercepts, identifies and escorts Russian aircraft that transit international airspace within the UK’s area of interest, and have scrambled planes to protect partner nations. Russia has also intensified its submarine activity off British shores.