Lossiemouth jets scrambled
 

Typical of the press to put an image of a Tonka on the article instead of a Typhoon.

Aren't the response times (or approximate response times) classified information? I believe it used to be - did the MOD recently release that information for the press to publish it?

RAF fighter jets scrambled to intercept two Russian military planes flying through international airspace - Mirror Online

What a ridiculous report (as usual). Alledgedly an RAF spokesman said of the Bear...
“It’s like a big game. Every time they try to push it a bit further. The problem is Russia’s Bears are so old and slow they can be tailed by helicopters.

“Our Typhoons have to keep going around because they can’t stay behind them.”

The Dail Mail got it right, though.
 

That bastion of British jouralism, The Dail Mail, got the correct pictures. Which is unlike them!!:D

BBC Intercept
 

Interesting to note the Bear has "BBC" boldly emblazoned across the Rudder!
Well we always suspected. ;)
KB

'scramble'
 

I believe they were given a launch instruction, not 'scrambled'.

What??!! Who was that? At least that well-known helicopter, the Lightning, could 'stay behind them'.:rolleyes:

Have the RAF or Brit army used any type of helicopter to 'tail' a Russian aircraft.
I'm not quite sure what 'tail' means but if it refers to flying behind something then even if a chopper was doing 120kts and the other other aircraft was doing 400kts then the helicopter would in fact be able to easily stay behind the aircraft it was tailing :)

Are you sure it wasn't a scorched, scotched Salmond they were keeping an eye on?

Yeah the Bear is famous for being slow.

Does it still hold the speed record for turboprops?

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafi...336AE49779.jpg

Well done Chaps! :ok: (in more ways than one!)

Are we living in a time warp? my nav and I were intercepting these "mixmasters" way back in the fifties, maybe Putin is the reincarnation of Stalin!

There are probably pilots thinking the same about the B52 :)

If you zoom in you can see typhoon with his hands above canopy trying to slow down and zoom in further and there are "people" in the back of the bear peddlin!

Possible new leftist administration amenable to 'visits' from anti-Western a/c from East of Greenwich.

Grenada 31 years on...

Luckily 55:45 against a new 'Cuba' on our doorstep, turn-back was awaiting word from Soviet High Command..., err, I mean that nice Mr Putin and his band of lackeys...

Dunno about a helo, but the USN launched an unarmed A-6 to protect the CBG from a Bear snooping around. A rather low point.

I've just heard a radio news story saying that six a Russian fighters got close to North American airspace and were intercepted by American and Canadian aircraft.
I wonder if they used helicopters or fixed wing aircraft for the intercept :)

Bears slow, don't think so, remember pulling alongside one in a Nimrod, Mach trim CB. Pulled, feeling like we matched them and then they opened up and left us for dead.

Two of the eight aircraft intercepted in the Artic last week were Mig 31 escorts and a fuel tanker.
Having fighter escorts with modern missiles on board might make it a bit more difficult than shooting fish in a barrel.

....you mean that this isn't a Typhoon??
 

http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/a...psc558e317.jpg


As we were talking about QRA and the press getting the wrong aircraft, I thought it was time for a gratuitous picture of a Lightning, just to keep the old boys awake.....

Ah! 23(F) as was. Presumably a piccy from the Victor. Cracking shot. Look - no flaps out on the Frightning either - and no rotors too.:confused:

Reminds me of the time I asked 'Victor the Vector' for pigeons to KEF and the man in the Bear blister held up a topo and pointed.................:)

It would be wrong not to include ...

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...hantomBear.jpg

Fair point BOAC ... so here's a better pic :ok:

Ah! But you must admit, a far inferior (aircraft) and picture.:)

I'm still waiting for one of the 'Rotatingheads' to post a piccy of a helicopleter chasing a TU95..............

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...s7sfEoWON4BwHA


.....not a heli, but how could we forget the Air Display Variant of the Tonka...

Feb12 1987
 

Intercepted two Bear Foxtrots 100 miles off The Faeroes.

Two F15s from Iceland already on scene. Some points about the Bear, massive radar cross section, picked them up at 70 miles using an AI23 radar as fitted to the Lightning. The Bears were cruising at 30,000 feet and were quite quick. The Bear was so noisy and powerful I could clearly hear the engines while formating on them for pictures.

I imagine the crew of a Bear would get off in Cuba almost deaf and still be vibrating several hours after landing.

Aircraft was XS 919 and was southern Q at Binbrook that day. John Carter the other Q pilot. Unable to get home stopped off for fuel at Leuchars and in Ops was Alistair the chap who accidentally shot down a Jag. Interesting day out.

A Bear 'D' from a rather more comfortable cockpit:


Then we showed the Ivans a nice picture of Samantha Fox in The Sun calendar from the flight deck window. Much grinning and waving followed - little does Samantha know the part her parts undoubtedly played in perestroika!

Nimrod transiting back to KSS having climbed out of our op area. Scottish Mil gave us a contact on reciprocal course and above. Contact was a Bear with F4 alongside which both went a couple of thousand feet right over the top. Seeing as how the Bear wouldnt have been squawking and was most definitely not under his control it struck me as very cavalier of the radar controller not to alert us as to what the contact actually was.:(

BEagle ...

So would that "more comfortable" cockpit be the VC-10 ;)

http://www.arrse.co.uk/community/att...rd-jpg.161395/

Was this a ploy to make the Soviets think that Strike Command had just introduced a brand new V-bomber into the order of battle?

So BEagle even had his initials painted on the fin.
My mum used to embroider mine onto my handkerchiefs.

I have mine in my shreddies.

Lovely old "Belinda" takes me back in time!

VC-10
 

MTM you jest but the VC-10 was considered as a Skybolt platform at one point...

Do Q-pilots communicate with the pilots of these aircraft?

Other than the finger, Goose?