Two Royal Air Force Typhoon jets were scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth on Tuesday afternoon as part of a Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) mission over the North Sea.
The aircraft were supported by an RAF Voyager tanker from Brize Norton, which was tracked heading north and operating in a refuelling pattern west of the Shetland Islands.
Flight tracking showed the Voyager, using the callsign TARTAN21, moving north from Brize Norton before orbiting in designated air-to-air refuelling areas. During the mission, the tanker climbed to over 34,000 feet and later descended as it repositioned northwards.
The movements were consistent with sustained air-to-air refuelling support for the Typhoons on task.
A Royal Air Force spokesperson confirmed:
“Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon Fighters launched from RAF Lossiemouth today due to unidentified aircraft approaching the UK’s area of interest. However, the unidentified aircraft did not enter the UK Flight Information Region and no interceptions took place.”
The Typhoons later returned to base. The RAF constantly coordinates with NATO partners and often assumes responsibility from other nations’ QRA aircraft when unidentified aviation approaches the UK’s Flight Information Region, which the RAF polices. No interceptions were required during this launch.
Quick Reaction Alert scrambles are a routine part of the RAF’s continuous air defence mission, intended to respond at short notice to any potential threat or incident in or approaching UK airspace. These launches can be ordered for a variety of reasons, including foreign military aircraft operating near UK territory or civilian aircraft that lose communications.
The Eurofighter Typhoon itself is a highly capable, twin-engine multi-role fighter designed for both air superiority and precision strike operations. Its delta wing and canard configuration provide outstanding agility, allowing it to excel in close-range manoeuvring, while advanced radar, electronic warfare systems and secure data links give it long-range combat effectiveness and integration with allied forces.
Beyond air defence, the Typhoon can be armed with a broad range of weapons including beyond-visual-range missiles, Paveway precision bombs, Storm Shadow cruise missiles and Brimstone ground-attack systems. With a top speed of Mach 2, extended combat radius and in-flight refuelling capability, the jet provides NATO with rapid response options and the endurance to patrol vast airspaces such as those north of Scotland.
Note: Some will observe that such scrambles “happen all the time.” That people are aware of this is precisely because they are regularly reported and monitored.
OMG !
It’s worth pointing out the vital role the voyagers play in QRA and the defence of the UK to every as**ole supporting Palastine Action and their attack on RAF aircraft. Thankfully it’s looks like the individuals involved will be in prison for many years.
Imagine if those QRA fighters had to launch with the voyager tankers grounded and damaged.
Yes, true and let’s hope lessons were learned and measures put in place.
Exactly and that’s why the response was rightly extremely firm on the perpetrators and the organisation. A message has to go out to anyone attacking a military base will be treated as a terrorist. Demonstrations are one thing but there has to be a red line there in an environment where we could be at war at any time.
TRouble is Voyager fm Brize will take 30MIn? to scramble, then 500mph north means 90min approx before even reaches Lossie, Typhoons scramble in 5 min even if they go super cruise the reach contact the Voyager could never get there before they flame out. be better to have QRA Voyager at Lossie
Tankers have launched from Brize for decades for QRA. The tanker is on station in plenty of time. Its a very well honed operation.
Before that the Victors launched out of Marham when Northern QRA was covered out of Leuchars with Phantoms, (Lightnings?) and Tornado F2/3.
To answer SteveM regarding time for the tanker to scramble.
As Victors where converted bombers they already had the capability of being prepared and checks done up to engine start and left at “Combat Ready” state. When the scramble was called all that needed to be done was the aircrew jump on board, fire up the engines (they retained the rapid engine starting system on the port engines). Ground crew removed the power cable and chocks and away they went. From my experience when I was working on Victors there was a sort of countdown or readiness states, if I remember correctly it went down from 60 to 30 to 15 minutes, at some stage (think it was RS 30) the air and ground crews would man the aircraft ready to scramble.
I would imagine Voyagers would be similarly prepared and may even launch before the fighters.
Operation Tansor meant Victors being ready for periods of Russian activity of up to several days. 55 and 57 took it in rotation. If bad weather clogged Marham up they would position a few to Leuchars. Lightnings had terribly short endurance, F4s were not much better either. I think it improved a bit with Tornado ADV. When compared to todays circus? Well, read my old mind.
Interesting, John, thanks for this. As I’m old enough to remember our 80s military I remember the Victors, but had missed that some would be det’d up to Leuchars.
Lightning was only at Binbrook by the mid 80s I think, up north was Phantom before the ADVs took over.
Yes Binbrook was the last Lightning station. Phantoms were the main QRA then, we even bought 12 ex US Navy to bolster numbers and got shafted as all ours were Spey engines, so spares were courtesy of Uncle Sam at a high price. The Leuchars idea was because of Norfolk fog, it could hang around for days. Victors lives were cut short sadly, airframe hours were high. So we ended up with a mix including six Vulcans after 82 before the VC10s came in. Marshalls also converted four C130s.
Theres an 82 story when a team turned up at a museum in the US and stole the refuelling probe from their exhibit Vulcan.
That’s right, those ex USN Phantoms went to Wattisham I recall
Hadn’t heard the museum story, nice one.
“Norfolk Fog” is just residue from all the Crop Spraying.
You’re geogs a bit out. The Voyagers aren’t going to Lossie, they will be out over the Atlantic or north of Shetland. Brize to St Kilda is just under 500 miles which at 400 knots (460 mph) is about 1 hr 5mins – Voyagers can cruise at 530+mph which would make it 56 minutes with a few more minutes for climb and acceleration. Obviously Shetland’s further but they orbit south of Shetland. The Typhoon would have 2 external fuel tanks which gives it, what, 2 hrs? (Anyone have a definitive answer?) And it can always land at Stornoway or Wick, as they regularly practice doing just that. And in any case, it works – Voyagers and Typhoons do this successfully every week. 30 minutes for Voyager to take off? Maybe… does anyone know the required reaction time?
30mins is typical for a fast turnaround of a commercial airliner. I’d expect getting a military Voyager to be faster than that.
I would hope so too.
Three guesses who that could be in our airspace 🤔
Santa on a Trial run ?
Well that’s just one guess !
Nice one….have you been here over a Christmas period yet?
This will be my 61st Christmas here !
Is there a special UKDJ Do ?
Do we all dress up ?
Is Grinch invited ?
I’m Tea total so I have to watch out at partys incase my drink gets spiked !
Ha. No, I meant you’ve not seen the UKDJ Christmas articles yet? They piss some posters off which I find hillarious as they are traditional fun and George rightly doesn’t give a toss.
I shall look forward to that then, I like fun !
Absolutely he’s on a trial run 🤗
I have observed on building sites small units which have cameras and proximity sensors which can alert to an intrusion in the area. Could this kit not be used to defend against sabotage.
Ring Doorbells are being fitted to every RAF base front door. That should stop any unwanted guests.
Bit early for Father Christmas posts, isn’t it?
Nothing to see. This is just the Cobra 2.1 exercise, or a part of it.
It’s over the next 2 days and nights. Activity started last night. I watch the Drakens out of the North Sea, last night. Also 10 plus Typhoons up last night along with many other airframes, from Apache thru C17.
No it’s not, please read the article.
You assume I comment without reading the article? It seems your people reading skills are lacking. The article is nothing more than a puff piece. We send alert aircraft up everyday, as you well know. Yes they intercept aircraft, same as they have been doing for decades. It’s the same when our bombers & escorts buzz their borders.
As for the currently ongoing exercise, Sir, check your Danger Box announcements and transport movements – as issued by the MOD & NATO.
You assume I comment without reading the article? It seems your people reading skills are lacking. The article is nothing more than a puff piece. We send alert aircraft up everyday, as you well know. Yes they intercept aircraft, same as they have been doing for decades. It’s the same when our bombers & escorts buzz their borders.
As for the currently ongoing exercise, Sir, check your Danger Box announcements and transport movements – as issued by the MOD & NATO.
How is AESA contract going? They should be already fitted if they’re standard on Tranche 4 jets FFS!!!
There are two AESA radars standards for the Typhoons: the Mk1s for Germany and Spain, and the Mk2s for us and Italy. Only the German Tranche 4 Typhoons with the Mk1s are close to delivery. The MK2s for our upgrades are a completely different radar, built by different people.
We could have had them by now as they were offered to the Finns for 2025 had the Typhoons won their contract (I think it was the Finns), but they opted for F-35s so we decided to take our sweet time over radar delivery. Now ours won’t be production ready until 2028.
There are three Typhoon AESA radars. Kuwait’s and Qatar’s new Typhoons have the ECRS Mk0 AESA fitted. Which is more or less a CAPTOR-M with an AESA front end. The ECRS Mk1 is all new, compete with the antenna swashplate, but doesn’t have electronic warfare modes. The ECRS Mk2 builds on the Mk1 but includes electronic warfare modes.
There are three Typhoon AESA radars. Kuwait’s and Qatar’s new Typhoons have the ECRS Mk0 AESA fitted. Which is more or less a CAPTOR-M with an AESA front end. The ECRS Mk1 is all new, compete with the antenna swashplate, but doesn’t have electronic warfare modes. The ECRS Mk2 builds on the Mk1 but includes electronic warfare modes. Germany is considering the Mk2 for their ECR Typhoon version.
AESA radar for our Phoons’, are still not delivered yet!Mind you the RAF are using F-35b’s for that purpose these days
Wonder how many times Russia has to escort Western planes from their airspace that we don’t see broadcast.I can still remember the infamous U2 incident.
Binbrook QRA, stood on the top off the hill, boots pants shirt ear defenders, less than 4 minutes and the beautiful sight of the beasts hurtling down the runway, to join a Victor tanker before it runs out of fuel ! Great days!