TWO Russian bombers flying in a long-range mission along Europe's western seaboard were intercepted by NATO fighter planes off Scotland.
The two Russian TU-160 Blackjack jets were spotted close to British airspace as they flew from the direction of Norway to northern Spain and back and RAF Lossiemouth-based Royal Air Force Typhoons were among the jets that were scrambled to deal with them.
The report of the NATO jets scrambling comes amid heightened tension between the west and Russia, after the US broke off military cooperation with Moscow over Syria.
Read more: Bottle of single malt whisky sells for record-breaking £68,500
The incident involving NATO allies occurred on September 22, but details have been now been revealed by the French Ministry of Defence.
The planes had skirted France's airspace, which extends 12 nautical miles from the coasts.
It began when Norway scrambled two F-16 fighters to respond to a pair of Blackjack bombers flying toward northern Scotland.
It is understood RAF Lossiemouth Typhoons then met and escorted the bombers as they flew west of Shetland.
The RAF said the Russian jets did not enter British air space.
Read more: Bottle of single malt whisky sells for record-breaking £68,500
The Russian bombers then skirted the west coast of Ireland and were met by French Rafale jets off the coast of Brittany.
The French Ministry of Defence statement said: "Air policing contributed to the protection of airspace to intercept, and escorted two Russian bombers type TU-160 Blackjack."
Iceland also later noted that Blackjack bombers had flown too close to civil airliners on the same day.
It is understood the RAF scrambles jets in response to probing flights by Russian aircraft several times a year.
The Blackjacks, nicknamed White Swan, because of their slender design, are supersonic strategic bombers designed to carry both nuclear and conventional bombs.
Read more: Bottle of single malt whisky sells for record-breaking £68,500
In November, RAF Typhoons intercepted two Blackjacks as they skirted UK airspace on an 8000-mile mission around Europe to fire missile at targets in Syria.
In December last year British military officials held talks with their counterparts in Moscow over "incursions" of Russian aircraft around the UK.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said the talks were aimed at finding ways of heading off any "miscalculation or accident".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel