Typhoon fighter aircraft scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth, with an RAF Voyager from Brize Norton, to monitor two Russian Blackjacks approaching UK airspace.

The RAF say in a news release that they worked closely with NATO partners to monitor the Russian aircraft as they passed through a variety of international airspace before they were intercepted over the North Sea.

“Our fighters escorted them from the UK’s area of interest and ensured that they did not enter UK sovereign airspace.”

Today (29/03/2019) RAF Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighter aircraft scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth, with an RAF Voyager from Brize Norton, to monitor two Russian Blackjacks approaching UK airspace.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

“Our brave RAF pilots have shown again that we are ready to respond to any threat to the UK. Alongside our NATO allies, we must remain vigilant and aware of Russian military activity.”

The RAF routinely identify, intercept and escort Russian aircraft that transit international airspace within proximity to the UK’s area of interest and continue to be on call every day.

This is the second time this week RAF aircraft have taken to the air to investigate Russian activity, following a similar incident on Wednesday evening, but on that occasion an intercept by the Typhoons was not necessary say the RAF.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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86 COMMENTS

      • OK, just to explain that last comment for those Younger Viewers, Fruit Salads and Blackjacks were sweets Widely sold during my Childhood. There was a time you could get 4 for a Penny.

        Just thought I’d explain this to stop anyone getting offended and taking It the wrong way, ending up with Name Calling and other Child like Behaviour.

        No offence Intended.

  5. Just at a time when the UK Government is looking elsewhere amidst the Brexit chaos? We know Russia will always play these games.
    There must be some shivers in the MOD with recent goings-on in Westminster. There is every likelihood British politics is about to see significant changes, with the possibility of more political parties being formed, in the wake of the principle players failing so spectacularly? More political choice may be seen as a modern way forward, but important policymaking could be placed at high risk? Too many viewpoints could destabilize UK defence, and weaken our ability to defend ourselves. If future governments are based on coalitions with multiple parties in power, issues such as renewal of our nuclear deterrent could be called into question. I predict liberal left mindsets will be the majority influence in the House, and all that implies for our future defence?

  6. I trust the Blackjacks are being careful not to infringe on Shetland sovereign airspace.

    I should remind intruders we have a wing of Typhoons on QRA at the Tingwall airbase. Or not. Well, there are 2 planes and they are twin engined, but it is possible they aren’t actually Typhoons. They are cleverly disguised as BN Islanders for security reasons.

  8. Thanks for the Blackjack explanation Captain.

    I had no idea what you were on about and don’t like any of that stuff!

    As for the flying Blackjacks, all routine stuff for the RAF.

    We do not need Bombers to “return the complement” as Merion suggests, NATO airborne and surface / subsurface ISTAR assets do that job.

      • Happy “Brexit Day” too.

        I’m annoyed I’m on nights shifts and did not take leave.

        Big demos underway in London at the moment and feel I should have been there with them. 🙁

    • But we should have a large bomber capability Daniel, I agree not for tit-for-tat stuff, but as a genuine force for high level warfare.
      My concern with war against an opponent such as Russia is this: war kicks off and escalates quickly. Both sides begin to try to degrade each other’s capabilities quickly. Uk uses it’s small number of fighters carrying small numbers of storm shadow to take out air defences but are met by a hugely capable layered air defence network and hundreds of fighters. They suffer many losses and have only limited success. Astutes launch T LAM from off shore, again in modest numbers due to stock and platform limitations, and many are also intercepted by S400.
      In retaliation, Russia send dozens of heavily armed hypersonic cruise missile subs which rain hundreds of missiles down on key airfield sites. Two available Astutes tasked with defending our shores are overwhelmed. Long ranged bombers also launch large numbers, and large numbers of Russian fighters hold our limited QRA off. Air defence for the whole country is provided by a couple of T45 which quickly run out of defensive missiles and most attacking missiles hit their targets and our ability to fight to hugely degraded.
      Obviously in this scenario we wouldn’t be fighting alone, but my point stands that we have almost no defensive capability against a large scale attack, and no way of launching a decisive attack at a significant scale against a peer. Our whole armed forces have some fantastic capabilities, but lack mass and several key features. We need to gain the ability of a larger scale attack from range. With the likes of China and Russia building these capabilities, the UK and all of our major European neighbours should be looking at a long range heavy bomber platform and each procure a squadron or two that can be combined to form a serious force if required. The next major war will be hugely swayed by the use of large numbers of missiles launched just outside air defence reach imo and we need to be ready for this and get the appropriate platforms and numbers between us and our allies to do this if needed.

      • T.S, now INF treaty is almost gone you will need to add new medium ranged ground based conventional cruise and ballistic missiles to your senario, with no need of expensive aircraft and submarines to carry them and building in mass making them much cheaper, it will change many things, both military and political

          • Ulya, he was a conservative politician and UK Minister pf Defence in the late 50s who proposed a radical shift away from manned aircraft to missile technology…farsighted or previous depending on your point of view I suppose 🙂

          • Thank you Paul. He might be right to a degree, aircraft, tanks, ships etc are all getting very expensive, and for many countries including Russian and the UK it just means we will have less, large numbers of cheap land based missiles will help compensate for that

          • The trend in the West looks like drone swarms: large numbers of small, intelligent, precise and hopefully cheap missiles. I hope their software is an improvement on the Boeing 737 Max 8 🙂

        • Considering the state of the Russian economy Ulya its not a good idea for putin to be in a arms race with the americans might end up like 1991 again.

          • Dave, the west has more people, money and military than Russia, we can never win an arms race against NATO, this is well understood, the defense budget does not need to increase to build land based cruise missiles as most missiles can be converted to land based launchers, it just means the Navy will get less big ships, cruiser and the dream of an aircraft carrier will be scraped

      • Morning T.S

        In your scenario then I would prefer better Air Defence not bombers.

        The scenario also assumes that those subs and bombers have not themselves been already negated, their missiles are accurate, our aircraft have not dispersed, and the RE of 12 Group are not on hand with repair equipment at key airfields.

        I do not think 2 Astutes would be defending our shores, but lurking in the Barents Sea destroying these subs along with US SSN.

        “Obviously in this scenario we wouldn’t be fighting alone, but my point stands that we have almost no defensive capability against a large scale attack”

        Agree. The Russian missiles and aircraft need to go through other NATO regions first though. I would also suggest not much has changed. In the Cold War our Radar sites were still vulnerable, same with our airfields, with just some SHORAD Rapier Squadrons and the Bloodhound chain on the East Coast. 11 Group could muster around 9, then 7 Air Defence Squadrons using a mix of Tornado F3, Phantom and Lightning depending on what period, late 80’s onwards. There were more assets, but less technology.
        Also consider geography, Duncan Campbell called the UK the United States “Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier”

        “and no way of launching a decisive attack at a significant scale against a peer.”

        This I agree with.

        However, name a country that can do that apart from the USA, Russia, and China? As you say, as part of NATO the response would be greater.

        We are a Medium power. Not a Superpower.

        We could scrap carriers and all sorts of other expeditionary assets and go totally defensive with more SAM. I feel that would be a mistake.

      • I’d actually say that we have a pretty decent defensive capability against the likes of Russia. It’s our offensive capability that we are lacking.

        War between us and Russia wouldn’t just break out at the drop of a hat without any notice. There would be escalating tensions that would allow at least some preparation time.

        During said time our Typhoon QRA would be increased from 4-8 planes to more like 20-30. We’d have the airframes to defend our airspace from Russian bombers or strike aircraft without too much difficulty.

        Next, the rest of our Typhoon fleet would be made ready. Those planes that are operational within squadrons would be armed and prepared for strike missions. Those on 2nd and 3rd line maintenance would very quickly be made ready for combat.

        In terms of defence; two Type 45 destroyers close to the UK would be able to replace their missiles quickly. Each has 48 missiles. In your scenario there are 2 Type 45s so that’s 96 missiles. Enough to deal with a swarm of enemy aircraft or incoming missiles. The Type 45s expended missiles could be replenished within hours if they’re close to the UK.

        I fully agree with you on our lack of offensive capability though.

    • Im younger than all of you then, some of you by a lot and I still have heard of blackjacks, maybe I just heard about them in folk tales though!

      • I’m 17 and I love blackjacks, maybe it depends what part of the country you are from? My favourite sweets are those milk bottle ones which I think have also been around for decades but I might be wrong.

  10. On the subject of Fruit Salads and especially Blackjacks. What ever happened to “Black Cat” Bubble gum??? Have’t seen that for 20+ years here in Canada.

  11. Morning Cap’n! Do you remember Trebor Chews? We also used to buy threepenny worth of Orange and lemon slices before going of to ABC minors-“We’re all boys and girls together, we’re minors of the A-B-Ceeeee”. In my days in the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland we could also buy 4 N***** Balls for a Rhodesian penny!
    Everyone a little off topic on this thread…

  12. So those were two Russian long-range bombers on a long-range training flight (Yawn). However, shock horror, they were “flying within proximity to the UK’s area of interest” and were “escorted from the UK’s area of interest”. What as strange choice of words. Do you mean, RAF jets went up, had a look, and watched as the Russian planes, who were international airspace, gradually got further and further away?

    New topic: The VTOL Harrier and the VTOL Lightening is a multi-decade, multi-billion swindle to transfer billions of pounds of tax payers money into the pockets of BAE shareholders (mostly non-British, by the way) and BAE executives. At the same time, they justify the existence of the US Marines as a separate force not only within the US military but even within the US Navy. Now, if this doesn’t set the cat amongst the pigeons, nothing will.

  13. I think the chances of large scale industrial warfare breaking out are remote.

    I think the next kinetic event will happen around a point of crisis (or perhaps several) where limited fires will be exchanged before there is a rapid deescalation. Armed forces these days mirror those of the early modern era. Small due to expense of the technology involved and the cost of maintaining a trained personnel base to service and use them effectively. And so therefore risked only when absolutely necessary. Oddly that is why we should ensure that our formations and platforms are outfitted with as much firepower as possible so that force is concentrated wherever and we have over match and deterrence. The best example being T45 which was at first under-gunned at it were and still is for a 7000 tonne plus platform. (I don’t want to go down the GP warship rabbit hole.)

    • That is why I think that the proposed Type 31 frigate should have some speciality in AAW capability. Taking on the role of maritime security in worldwide ops, with one to be based in Bahrain. The threat from the air will only increase.

  16. LOL. My Life here Is now Complete.!!!!!!!!

    Thanks Chaps.

    It’s been a tad Nasty here for a few Weeks. All back to Normal now.

  17. 60 comments on an article about Blackjack Nuclear capable bombers near the UKADR….and most are about sweeties!

    As King Théoden said…”How did it come to this…?”

    Captain!! LOL

    • LOL. MIG 31’s are “stratospheric” Interceptors?

      Since when were Foxhounds over the North Sea when they are used to defend Russia as part of the modern day PVO? Not as long range bomber escorts?

  20. OT, like most of this thread, I read that 5131 BD Squadron is disbanding shortly.

    Another “stealth cut” with little fanfare. The EOD work for the RAF will now be undertaken by the army.

  21. I do wonder what the tactical plan is for these bombers. If the worst happens and they are needed, how do they plan to get through the significantly faster and agile fighter protection. A handful of sub launched cruise missiles would wipe out our undefended land based radars but that still leaves airborne and ship based radars. The only real hope is to saturate the defenders with offensive fighters with the bombers coming up from the rear but once they have air supremacy with the fighters they don’t really need these bombers. Maybe they intended to fly in low under the radar or have found black spots.

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