RAF Scrambles To Intercept Russian Bombers

**Ryan Ruck** · July 19th, 2007, 15:48

RAF fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian strategic bombers heading for British airspace yesterday, as the spirit of the Cold War returned to the North Atlantic once again.

The incident, described as rare by the RAF, served as a telling metaphor for the stand-off between London and Moscow over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

While the Kremlin hesitated before responding to Britain's expulsion of four diplomats, the Russian military engaged in some old-fashioned sabre-rattling.

Two Tu95 "Bear" bombers were dispatched from their base on the Kola Peninsula in the Arctic Circle and headed towards British airspace.

Russian military aircraft based near the northern port city of Murmansk fly patrols off the Norwegian coast regularly, but the RAF said that it was highly unusual for them to stray as far south as Scotland.

Two Tornado fighters, part of the RAF's Quick Reaction Alert, took off from RAF Leeming, in Yorkshire, to confront the Russian aircraft, after they were shadowed by two F16s from the Royal Norwegian Air Force, The Times has learnt.

"The Russians turned back before they reached British airspace," an RAF spokesman said.

There was no evidence to suggest that the incident was connected with the diplomatic row over the extradition of Andrei Lugovoy, the main suspect in the murder of Litvinenko.

**American Patriot** · July 20th, 2007, 13:49

Why aren't news channels covering this?

**Ryan Ruck** · July 21st, 2007, 02:49

Because it doesn't involve this:

or this:

Don't you know those stories are SOOOO much more important!!! Like Duh!

I found this story on Fox with some additional important details...

British Fighter Jets Scrambled as Russian Bombers Approach Airspace

Fighter planes from Britain and Norway scrambled on Friday to keep watch on Russian bombers that were approaching the countries' air space, officials said.

The incidents occurred amid high tensions between Britain and Russia, as each country ordered the expulsion of four diplomats from the other side. There was no indication that the flights were connected to the row.

Norwegian military spokesman Lt. Col. John Inge Oeglaend told The Associated Press that his country's F-16s were sent into action twice: once when two Russian Tu-95 bombers headed south along the Norwegian coast in international air space. They turned around above Aberdeen on Scotland's North Sea coast.

In the second, two Tu-160 bombers were spotted flying near Norwegian air space over the Barents Sea, he said.

Oeglaend characterized the incidents as routine but said it was a "bit unusual that the first two bombers went so far south." Aberdeen's latitude is about 50 miles below the southern tip of Norway.

Russian Air Force spokesman Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky said British and Norwegian planes approaching bombers on training flights were a "normal occurrence."

A spokesman for Britain's Royal Air Force said he had no immediate information on the reports. British media earlier reported that RAF planes had approached Russian bombers on Tuesday as they headed toward British air space.

Britain on Monday ordered four diplomats to leave as punishment for Russia's refusal to extradite the man named by Britain as the chief suspect in last year's killing in London of ex-Russian security officer-turned-Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko.

Russia on Thursday ordered four British diplomats to leave in a reciprocal move.

That response appeared to indicate that neither side wished to escalate the tensions further. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday expressed confidence the nations would overcome their differences.

In case some don't know, this is the Tu-160:

And Russia is building a number of new ones.

**Ryan Ruck** · July 21st, 2007, 02:55

With these bomber flights, isn't it great we pulled out of Iceland?

**Ryan Ruck** · July 21st, 2007, 15:00

Russian Bombers Test UK Patience Again

TWO Russian Tu-95 bombers made unusually long sorties over the North Sea yesterday, forcing both Norway and Britain to scramble fighter jets to follow the Russian planes, Norway's armed forces said.

The Russian bombers stayed in international air space during their flight, which took them as far south as the region between Norway's Stavanger and Aberdeen in Scotland - centres of the North Sea oil industry.

The incident, the latest of several such sorties in past days, occurred during a period of heightened diplomatic tensions between Russia and Britain over Moscow's refusal to extradite a murder suspect.

"It's a long time since they (Russian bombers) have been that far south," John Inge Oegland, spokesman for Norway's armed forces, told Reuters.

"I would say that is rather unusual.

"Since they were so far south, the RAF (Britain's Royal Air Force) followed the same procedure and went up to identify them."

When Russian military planes approach Norwegian air space, Norway scrambles fighters to meet and follow them.

Russia's air force commander said this week that such sorties were training flights for the long-range bombers.

"The pilots flew on routes used for international flights," Colonel Yuri Pomelov, an information officer for the Russian military, said. (I seem to remember that being a line from Red Dawn...)

"We strictly followed international agreements on the use of airspace."

Cold War

Norway said it was not unusual for Russian military planes to fly over international waters across the Barents Sea and then either turn south into the Norwegian Sea or continue flying west over the Atlantic, before turning around.

Oegland said the apparent increase in Russian sorties along Norwegian air space follows a major exercise by Russia's Northern Fleet in the Russian Barents Sea.

"In such small exercises (as these sorties) they are not obliged to inform us," he said.

"We obviously watch it but it hasn't raised any concerns.

"The Norwegian and Russian military have good working relations."

During the Cold War, Mr Oegland said, similar Russian training sorties took place "nearly every day" but their pace slowed significantly in the mid-1990s before picking up again in past years along with funding for Russia's military machine.

Norway also scrambled fighters yesterday to follow two Tu-160 Russian bombers, a more modern jet-engine strategic bomber than the propeller-driven Tu-95, which passed near Norwegian air space in the Barents Sea.

The Tu-160s flew west into the Atlantic, where they were met by two tankers for air-to-air refuelling, before heading back to Russia, Oegland said.