A Russian Tu-142 Bear F maritime patrol aircraft passed at low altitude and unnecessarily close to HMS Prince of Wales in the Norwegian Sea, dropping tens of sonobuoys in close proximity to the carrier before being intercepted and escorted away by two F-35B jets, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The incident, first reported by Politico from aboard the carrier, took place on the afternoon of 2 July, northwest of Norway, while the UK Carrier Strike Group was conducting flying operations. The Russian aircraft did not respond to UK attempts to contact it on international frequencies to ascertain its intentions and warn of the safety of flight risk involved in approaching a carrier during flying operations, and the F-35Bs, flown by pilots of 809 Naval Air Squadron, escorted the Bear until it left the area.
“While operating in the Norwegian Sea on Operation FIRECREST, the UK’s Carrier Strike Group was repeatedly approached by a Russian ‘Bear-F’ maritime patrol aircraft,” a Ministry of Defence spokesperson said. “The Bear-F passed at low altitude and unnecessarily close to HMS Prince of Wales and dropped a large number of sonobuoys in close proximity to the carrier. This activity was unsafe and unprofessional. The Russian aircraft was intercepted and escorted by two UK F-35 jets from HMS Prince of Wales until it left the area.”
Sonobuoys are expendable devices dropped into the sea that act as underwater listening posts, transmitting acoustic data back to the launching aircraft to detect and track submarines, and a large pattern laid close to a carrier group is consistent with an attempt to locate any submarine operating in company with it.
The Tu-142 is the maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine derivative of the Tu-95 Bear bomber, a four-engined turboprop flown by the Russian Navy from Northern Fleet bases on the Kola Peninsula, and its crews have shadowed NATO naval groups in the North Atlantic for decades. Intercepting the type is a familiar task for British fighters, though on this occasion the jets came from the deck of the carrier the aircraft was probing rather than from land bases.
The strike group is deployed under NATO command in the High North as part of the alliance’s Arctic Sentry framework, with its headquarters embarked in HMS Prince of Wales for Operation Firecrest, the deployment announced by the Prime Minister at the Munich Security Conference in February in response to increased Russian naval activity, with the government citing a 30 per cent rise in Russian vessels in UK waters over the past two years.
The group comprises the carrier, the Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan, F-35 jets, Merlin and Wildcat helicopters, supported by the tanker RFA Tidespring, with more than 1,500 British personnel deployed, and her jets have flown air defence patrols over Iceland and the High North, the first time NATO air defence operations have been conducted from a European aircraft carrier.
Anti-submarine capability within the group rests mainly with the embarked Merlin helicopters, with the Royal Navy unable to assign a frigate to the deployment. The department placed the deployment within the UK’s wider contribution to NATO, which also includes British jets patrolling the skies over Romania, a battlegroup equipped with advanced drones in Estonia, and the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps held ready in the UK.
The intercept coincides with the UK taking command for the first time of the special forces element of NATO’s Allied Reaction Force, described by the department as the spearhead of the alliance’s rapid deployment forces, able to deploy anywhere in the world within days.
Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis, speaking to Politico aboard the carrier, was also asked whether the strike group is tracking the superyacht linked to Vladimir Putin that was reported last week to be moving along the Norwegian coast on its way back to Russia. He declined to say, telling the outlet: “We know where it is.” The Defence Secretary, a former Army officer, added that the vessel’s movement was another combat indicator, in his phrase, that the Russian president is under increasing pressure.
So It was able to drop “Sonobouys In close proximity” BEFORE being Intercepted ?
Hmmm, You can hear a Bear from a thousand Miles away.
Jokes on them, we don’t have any submarines in the area 😂
A brilliant piece of government strategy to keep them all In port/dock well away from them then ! 😁
But the allies might …
They might but how much useful acoustic data would you pick up in the middle of a task force. Can’t imagine a SSN would be anywhere near the carrier unless for photo shoot.
Well if you’re not actually at war you can’t just shoot it down, so relatively difficult to do much about it.
It got pretty close from those pics. Must have been in awe to see a carrier not belch thick black smoke and move under its own power.
It’s close but it’s not that close. It’s pretty hard to stop an aircraft over international waters going where it likes. It is a MPA as well not a bomber.
Dropping the sonobuoys at Faslaine & Devenport would probably result in a greater number of detections.
Yes but also a violation of UK sovereign air space and a shooting down of the aircraft if they try. The Russia have however been trying to place sound detection systems near the Clyde by other means. Several have been found.
Swings and roundabouts.
Isn’t there footage out there of a Bucc passing virtually at sea level past a Kirov?
I think so mate, fast passes were the norm during the Cold War, with ( for the most part) a gentlemens agreement on both sides as to what was and wasn’t playing cricket.
The issue we have now in Cold War2, is that a highly belligerent and radicalised Russia, isn’t the same beast as a controlled USSR who understood the rules of the dance.
Ivan keeps doing bloody dangerous stunts like this, no doubt egged on by their chain of command, it’s a rapidly escalating shit show just waiting to spark off an exchange of fire.
Is it any more dangerous than flashing past the Kirov at 10 feet?
I don’t think so mate.
Trying to put this in perspective.
Afternoon mate, I suppose ( to the best of my knowledge) in the days of the Soviet Union, neither side released anything in the direction of the opposition, Bear intercept wete generally a crews waving at each other and intelligence photographic opportunity.
There is one famous occasion when a Lightning was actually vectored towards its Victor Tanker by a Bear crew, fir example…
These days, its laser pens shone at pilots ( from the Russian side) and reckless manoeuvring.
I’m Not saying it didn’t occasionally get heated back then, but it was very much the exception, not the rule.
These days, there is a more aggressive and maverick approach by the Russians, they actually seem to be encouraged by their Command to carry out extremely dangerous manoeuvring around NATO aircraft, or indeed let loose the odd AAM, as was the case recently with one of our RW135s.
It’s one miscalculated move away from an incident that could in turn ‘rapidly’ escalate out of control.
There were rules of behaviour that were understood and largely followed.
The Russian Cricket Team were often thrashed from memory…..
Yep, back when we carried out our ‘fighting’ via far flung proxies.
These days its almost face to face, us propping up Ukraine and Russia trying to knock them down, all carried out close to home, dangerous times my friend….
That’s what I was thinking. We use to do much the same.
Welcome back to the Cold War, this was pretty routine in the past. I suspect that they might have been trying to get an update on the carrier’s acoustic signature, they will be well aware that we don’t have an SSN in the area, though there is no saying that the Yanks don’t have one. I also suspect that HMS Duncan would have had the seaboat in the water before the last one dropped.
And the Buccs used to do that to us as well as them, I saw one go between my ship and the tanker during an exercise in the Med, over at 90 degrees and flat out. It’s the nearest I have ever got to brown trousers!
Just before the Ist Gulf War I was crewing on a yacht in the Minches N. of Skye when we were I think used as target practice by a succession of Bucc’s at very low height
Blimey the noise! and you could feel them
I think the skipper shortened sail
“Shortened sail or touching cloth” ? 🫡😁
There was a cloth used but a red stain not brown!
One of the crew smacked his head below
I was steering at the time when the first Buccaneer roared over the masthead from stern to bow
When I mean low they were skimming the sea
Back in the 70/80s this was a common site
The only difference then was we had a “proper” carrier then with arrester and caps to launch Phantoms (+ Buccs and EW Ganetes ) not forgetting the choppers of course
Many a time the Bear came over only for the Phantoms to fly either side and shepherd the Bear out
Then it returned and the same happened again
So nothing new
I dont actually think it was anything to do with acquiring the acoustic signature, they will already have that for both ships, ample opportunities to gather that data over the last few years.
This was far more reckless hooligan behaviour than anything else.
Should have painted it full of HMS Duncan SAMPSON as well as powering up Phalanx and pointing it at the 142…
That’s literally what they want because they’d be able to analyse the data
For all of the five seconds before their electronics blew, perhaps!
You beat me to it and Torpedoj in their reply.
Fry the barstewards and watch them go down into an icy grave and stand back and chuckle as the ***** try to recover the black box from the depths.
Only good Russian is a dead Russian and we should educate their comrades about screwing with us.
This is just Russia doing what Russia dose, and as pointed out above we do the same (well use to when we had the capability). If the Ukrainians keep knocking out the bears with there attacks on the Russian airfields the Russians will also lose that capability as well, hopefully quite soon.
So a Russian Carrier ( if they had one, ho ho ho ) operates in the Barents.
Of course, NATO would NOT be flying past it trying to gain useful COMINT and ELINT, would they.
🙄
It works BOTH ways and this isn’t new, or any more outrageous than what has happened countless times before.
I like to be, sensible, and keep things in perspective, sorry.
What do we expect the Bear to do, sit on it’s paws in it’s cave?
? Hang on, I know…..
It Shit’s In the Woods.
Not sure this bear has a cave… hangar bout a minute…
Nothing new there people. In 1984 on HMS Illustrious, we were up in the high North, above Norway in rather claggy conditions. I just happened to be off watch and decided to get some fresh air up in one of the boat decks. So there I was, sat on a bollard, having a cup of tea and minding my own business, and lo and behold, without warning, a Bear went right over the top at at about 800ft. They were always there back then.
Look, in 2026, Russia is a poor pathetic shadow of what it used to be as part of the USSR. Ukraine is now the boss in Vladolf Putler’s three day ‘Special Military Operation’. Soon, Putin (Putler) will be faced with two options: end the war and ‘claim’ victory, or be removed by his own oligarchs, who have huge influence on what goes on. Either way, Ruzzia is collapsing.
Light them up and fry them more crispy than a microwave oven.
Chance the ***** could ever recover them?
Only good Russian is a dead one, men, women and children; it’s all they understand.
Not all sonobuoys are anti submarine.
SIGINT bouys are a thing.