Typhoon jets to deploy to the Arctic for secret escort mission

Typhoon aircraft will fly from RAF Lossiemouth this evening to begin escorting an unidentified cargo aircraft.

The route is understood to take them over every village and town in the United Kingdom. It is expected the aircraft will enter our airspace not a moment before midnight.

The National Air Traffic Service have reportedly only given the aircraft clearance to fly over the homes of good girls and boys

According to a the MoD, the RAF also plan to deploy Voyager tankers in order to refuel the inbound aircraft.

Voyager, the RAF designation for the Airbus A330 MRTT, began air-to-air refuelling flights and made its first operational tanker flight in May 2013. The UK operates a total of 14 Voyager aircraft, 5 of which are leased for commercial purposes when not required.

In addition to fuel, the Voyager aircraft is also expected to transfer over some biscuits and a large quantity of Brandy on behalf of the British people.

This comes not long after the Royal Air Force was placed on high alert in the coming days in order to intercept and track flights from the Arctic region.

An MoD spokesman had this to say:

“Interception is part of what the QRA force do. We have to identify and confirm who or what is flying through our airspace or approaching our airspace and since the craft appears at the same time each year, we have a fairly good idea who will be flying but we don’t take any chances.”

The Ministry of Defence used satellites with infra-red sensors to track the aircraft last time this happened, it is understood that the heat from an animals red nose was clearly visible.

Merry Christmas from all here at the UK Defence Journal.