Royal Air Force Lossiemouth-based Typhoon fighters were scrambled to intercept a Russian military aircraft operating near UK airspace on Sunday.
The Russian aircraft that was intercepted was a Tu-142 Maritime Patrol aircraft, known by the NATO code name as a Bear-F.
The Tu-142 approached from the North-East and flew in international airspace over the Norwegian Sea and North Atlantic Ocean.
The RAF have stressed that at no point did the Russian aircraft enter UK sovereign airspace and Norwegian F-35A fighter aircraft were also launched as part of NATO’s response to the Russian aircraft to monitor the Russian aircraft.
“Additional air to air refuelling support was provided by a RAF Voyager aircraft from RAF Brize Norton, alongside command and control from the National Air and Space Operations Centre at RAF High Wycombe and the Air Surveillance and Control System at RAF Boulmer.
Quick Reaction Alert Typhoons are launched to intercept unidentified aircraft flying in the UK’s area of interest. QRA procedures entail RAF aircraft and crews being held at continuous high readiness 24/7, so that they can take off within minutes to protect UK sovereign airspace, should it be required.”
How does Quick Reaction Alert tasking work?
According to the RAF website, the National Air Defence Operations Centre (NADOC) at RAF Air Command, High Wycombe collates information from radar sites across the UK and from civilian air traffic and intelligence agencies.
“They decide the threat is sufficient to scramble Typhoon jets and pass the order to to the Control and Reporting Centres (CRCs) at RAF Scampton and RAF Boulmer. The CRCs have direct contact with the pilots at RAF Lossiemouth and pass on the scramble message. Pilots at RAF Coningsby are ordered to standby in the cockpits of their Typhoons. RAF Coningsby is the second QRA station in the UK.”
Essentially, the jets and their crews are at a moment’s notice to launch and intercept unresponsive or dangerous aircraft.
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 carry out the intercept safely, 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 intercepts 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 new’ or ‘This happens all the time it is not news!’.
While this is a common occurrence, we believe that it’s crucial for the public to know that. After all, if it isn’t reported frequently, how are people to know it’s a frequent occurrence and not something to worry about?
I have a question – Why doesn’t the Typhoon in the picture appear to be carrying Meteor or AMRAAM? It looks like it has 4 ASRAAM only. Is it an ROE thing on QRA?
Id say so – ROE would dictate a visual confimation of a potential threat so ASRAAM would be sufficient in those circumstances.
As far as I’ve read in a few other forums,
Paul’s correct ROE now dictates visual ident before shooting so, regular carriage of BVR has been stopped to save missile stock from unneeded wear & tear
All I read here is International Airspace
OT but just wondering what the Russian Nazis will be using to roll down red square on the 9th? They are running out of people and kit! Be amusing to see the “glory” of Russia, all dressed nice and marching exactly like the Nazis, but absolutely no military skills or training/knowledge!
They’ll be doing something similar to Patton’s 1st army I reckon.
Not 100% sure but digging out my memory banks were they a diversionary group using blow up decoys prior to June 6th? If so, agreed 😂👍
Yes, complete with Dummy Landing Craft, Dummy Tanks, and fake radio traffic, all directed at Pas De Calais.
Think they have already cancelled their parades this year… For “security reasons” of course.
I’d imagine a lot of it will actually be from their Strategic Rocket Forces, so Pooptin can do more silly nuclear sabre rattling. They like to drive big missiles through there looking menacing. I’d think it hillarious to see Trident paraded down the Mall in response and the fit from the usual 5th columnists.