British jets intercept Russian Bears over North Sea

Typhoons from RAF Lossiemouth launched to intercept Russian Tupolev Tu-142 maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft earlier today.

RAF Typhoons tracked the aircraft across the North Sea supported by ‘Vespina’, the Voyager tanker that’s also outfitted as a transport aircraft for senior officials and is pictured below.

The MoD said that the RAF Typhoons, which are based at RAF Lossiemouth, were scrambled after the Russian aircraft “entered the UK’s controlled zone of international airspace”, please note however that at no point did they enter UK airspace.

Why does the UK intercept aircraft outside of its own airspace?

Andy Netherwood, a former Royal Air Force pilot, explained why this is done.

“A country’s sovereign airspace extends 12 miles beyond its coastline, sitting above its territorial waters.  However, there are 3 main reasons why unknown or potentially hostile aircraft must be intercepted before they reach this point.”

“The first is flight safety. Whilst sovereign airspace only extends 12 miles from the coastline, countries are responsible for ensuring the safety of civil aviation, including the provision of ATC services, within areas known as Flight Information Regions or FIRs. These extend well beyond the 12-mile limit. Russian long range aviation often transits the London and Scottish FIRs without filing a flight plan, talking to ATC or ‘squawking’ (operating their transponders).  This makes them effectively invisible to civilian ATC and is very dangerous as airliners are also flying through this airspace.  By shadowing Russian aircraft, the intercepting aircraft can show ATC where they are, allowing controllers to move airliners safely out of the way.

The second reason is because of the speed at which aircraft travel.  An aircraft flying at 600 knots will travel 12 miles in little over a minute.  Waiting until an unknown or hostile aircraft has entered sovereign airspace before intercepting is too late. It leaves insufficient time to safely carry out the intercept, visually identify the aircraft, provide all the required information back to decision-makers, and carry out any necessary action. Russian aircraft will normally be intercepted by the Norwegian Air Force and then handed over to RAF aircraft ensuring they are continually shadowed.”

“The final reason is to demonstrate capability and intent. One of the reasons Russia carries out these exercises is to test NATO and the UK. A failure to intercept would be interpreted as weakness and encourage further probing.”

For more on why the RAF intercept aircraft around the UK, you can read the full piece.

This happens often, doesn’t it?

No doubt you’ve probably noticed dozens of comments on our Facebook page saying something like, ‘nothing news’ or ‘This happens all the time it isnot news!’. While this is a common occurence, we believe that its important for the public to know that. After all, if it isn’t reported frequently, how are people to know it’s a frequent occurence and not something to worry about?