RAF Vs Turkish Air Force?

[Postman Plod]

BREAKING: British Typhoons in near clash with Turkish jets over Cyprus

This strikes me as an odd occurrence... It seems that the RAF scrambled from Akrotiri to intercept unknown aircraft over Turkish-Cypriot airspace, however the Turkish Air Force then scrambled from Incirlik to intercept the RAF Typhoons...

Given they are NATO partners, and given the RAF regularly fly over and around Cyprus, what went "wrong" here? Do the RAF generally completely avoid northern Cyprus? Would we normally contact the Turkish before entering the Turkish sector?

[Lonewolf_50]

Have you ever been in a NATO exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean?

Stupid crap like this has happened before.

[500N]

Question for those who have operated around there before

"A a squadron of F-16 fighter jets have been based at at Turkish airstrip in northern Cyprus since 2011, however it is understood the Turkish jets took off from Incirlik air base in Turkey, in order to intercept the British planes. "


Would that mean that the F-16's on Cyprus are not set up for QRA type response,
hence they were sent from Incirlik ?

[Pontius Navigator]

500N, may be they rotate QRA? May be it depends in where the Tiffys were at the time.

Would you want to scramble underneath a couple of bogies? Better to come from afar and get some height and speed first?

Once on an exercise we had the privilege of 'bombing' a Danish airfield. Great fun overflying an RDAF Hunter trying to get airborne as we went down the centreline doors open

[500N]

PN

Thank you. Just what I was after. I can see very good reasons indeed.
(I think like a Soldier, not a pilot !!!).

[Melchett01]

"A a squadron of F-16 fighter jets have been based at at Turkish airstrip in northern Cyprus since 2011, however it is understood the Turkish jets took off from Incirlik air base in Turkey, in order to intercept the British planes. "

I might be splitting hairs, it might be inaccurate reporting or things might have changed, but last time I was at Incirlik it was home to Turkish AAR not F-16s. The F-16s are a bit further over to the east at Diyarbikir or west at Konya.

So unless there has been some shuffling around or assets have been repositioned, it could be more like F-16s forward deployed and AAR launched in support of QRA from Northern Cyprus if anything did indeed come out of Incirlik.

But tied into PN's point aside, if they had launched from the north of the island, I doubt you would put a tanker up into a potentially high threat environment as a HVT and in any case I doubt it would be required given the short range. So potentially the F-16s could have launched from the mainland with AAR support. Just a late evening thought over a snifter, could be wrong.

[cokecan]

hang on, i don't get this.

the Typhoons went after something, and in response the Turkish F-16's went after the Typhoons.

so what was the 'something' the Typhoons went after to begin with?

[Uncle Ginsters]

I might be splitting hairs, it might be inaccurate reporting or things might have changed, but last time I was at Incirlik it was home to Turkish AAR not F-16s. The F-16s are a bit further over to the east at Diyarbikir or west at Konya.

Things have indeed changed, Melchett. The Incirlik F16 'Q' have been pretty active for a while now.

[Roger the cabin boy]

Question is though, who'd win the engagement? Just wondered? A flight of Tiffys in full DCA mode vs Turkish F-16?

[Melchett01]

Ahhh every day's a school day eh! Thanks for the update UG, as I alluded, it's been a while since I last spent any time at Incirlik. Which was scene of some of the most surreal situations with the Turkish crews as they flew iso ops to bomb the places we were flying to protect! Surreal, but a very interesting place with some good memories.

[taxydual]

And a telephone call between NATO allies? Does that not exist anymore?

[rudirock]

they say happend something like that but i live in kyrenia north cyprus i have not seen any jets around here also our news didnt show anything about it just one of the greek newspaper wrote it online

[hanoijane]

Question is though, who'd win the engagement?

Interesting question. Speculating is such fun, and quite harmless...

Being a third party observer, and without any of the products of United Aircraft Corporation being involved (for whom I'd obviously be cheering), one would imagine Mr Typhoon would be holding all the aces.

However, as the fight would have been taken place in their own back yard and the Turks can be aggressive and somewhat unpredictable little fellows, I'd think we'd have seen two F16's and one Typhoon fluttering down towards the Med.

So, a Typhoon victory. Of sorts.

[Ronald Reagan]

I think the Turkish air force is possibly the second biggest in NATO after the USAF. Its amazing how many F-16s and F-4s they have. I am sure its something like a 400 to 500 jet air force. They have F-5s also. Shame its that muppet Erdogan in charge though! Scary to think of him controlling such a force.

[Easy Street]

Given they are NATO partners

NATO partners can operate in their own national interests and retain the right to launch "national" missions without any recourse to NATO procedures or C2. One suspects that this was just such a case.

[ShotOne]

Typhoon victory? What sort of "victory" has allies knocking lumps off each other. Surely there's some diplomatic protocol for such a situation. Is it really so hard for someone to pick up a phone??

[newt]

I think the point of this might be.........RAF sends six Typhoons to Cyprus!!!

IS that all we can muster these days?

[Arclite01]

Ronald Reagan

Not to mention the size of the Greek (Hellenic) Air Force.

Beats me how these countries maintain such large arsenals of aircraft............ while we reduce ours to the bare bones. We really have got the Government we deserve haven't we.

Oh hang on, both counties are virtually bankrupt...................

For me - The real question is how many are serviceable if they needed them.

Probably about 6 - ergo the number of Typhoons we have sent...............

Arc

[Ronald Reagan]

Arclite01, agree with you totally about the Greek air force. No idea how the recent economic issues have hurt their air force but it cannot have been good.
As for the Turkish air force they have always struck me as one of those that can generate a huge number of sorties with wave after wave of aircraft, that goes for the F-16s, F-4s and F-5s. It really amazes me. There is no European air force like that anymore. I think the French were like that until maybe 2004/2005 sort of time, now they are disintegrating to be like the other European air forces, they were the last of the big western European air forces.
Most air forces in Europe now have small fleets of aircraft and the vast majority of those are broken most of the time.

[whowhenwhy]

The original ac that the Tiffys were sent to investigate may also have been TUAF given that the Turks have been known to put some of their fast-air south of the border, non-squawking, albeit feet-wet.

Notwithstanding comments about NATO allies etc and even considering that the Block 40 mod gave them Sparrow and AMRAAM, I'd have thought that we'd be a little annoyed over a prospective 2 for 1 ratio.