Posted on 02/19/2015 10:07:37 AM PST by Smartisan
RAF fighters were scrambled after two Russian bear bombers were spotted off the coast of Cornwall, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The Typhoon jets, from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, escorted the Russian aircraft which were flying in international airspace close to the UK yesterday afternoon, an MoD spokesman said.
An MoD spokesman said: `"RAF Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighter aircraft were launched yesterday after Russian aircraft were identified flying close to UK airspace.
The Russian planes were escorted by the RAF until they were out of the UK area of interest. At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into UK sovereign airspace.
Today, the Russian Tu-142 fleet have been heavily upgraded into a full ELINT/SIGINT platform, and are often seen flying in the North and Baltic Seas and near Japan on intelligence gathering missions. In fact, the very fact the planes have a quite high radar cross section due to the big turboprop engine blades makes it ideal to test Western reaction the presence of these planes.
I’d suggest that the speculative sighting over inland Cornwall was probably actually one of the new Airbus 400 transports, which are just coming into service with the RAF. Some superficial similarities - high swept wing, four turboprops - the only other plane with that configuration, I think. I’m not far away in Devon, and I’ve had several sightings here.
True indeed. Good points.
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