PPRuNe Forums - TU-95 Intercept

PPRuNe Forums (https://www.pprune.org/)

- Military Aviation (https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation-57/)

- - TU-95 Intercept (https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/556792-tu-95-intercept.html)

Why not invite them down next Riat time and escort them to the show for a couple of passes.
After all there can't be much screwed onto a Bear that we dont know about and not much on the ramp that they don't. Well worth the Avgas and the entrance fee.:):)
Pkam.

pkam,
That was done several years ago, I believe.

If we filled it up with Avgas it really would learn 'em!!

Sorry, drifted back to my motorcycle days at Lindholme RAF, there was allways a spare can around!
pkam:rolleyes:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZOOKER

Does anyone have any factual information about the tracks flown and the especially the approximate levels flown by these TU95 flights please?
How did they get to Cornwall/SE of Ireland?

Don't know much about it, but some NATO sources won't publish all available data on these flights as it concerns sensor capabilities and so on.

Could be wrong, but I think the Bears in question flew out of Engels-2. Perhaps they flew NW across Kola and around the North Cape before pushing SW. Not an unusual route, apparently.

Soooooo...........

In the '60s the UK was chasing Bears with the Lightning.
In the '70s the UK was chasing Bears with the F4.
In the '80s the UK was chasing Bears with the F2.
In the '90s the UK was chasing Bears with the F3.
In the '00/10s the UK was/is chasing Bears with the Typhoon.
In the '20s the UK will be chasing Bears with the.........

Makes one wonder how hard the Russians, especially their bean-counters, are chuckling. :hmm:

Sitting here on a wet Sunday afternoon reading the broadsheets two questions come to mind:
I seem to recall that as part of our cashing in of the "peace dividend" UK plc closed a number of early warning radar sites up in the North of Scotland and various islands as the USSR and it's threat had disappeared never apparently to return.
I've also read the RAF has been unable to keep its Sentry fleet updated to the latest spec and one of the airframes is no longer airworthy!

Assuming one or both of these statements is correct (from open sources) how secure is UK airspace from Russian visitors should the wheel start to fall off?

cows getting bigger

Quite so

And dont forget that in the same period we've gone from Valiant to Victor K1 to Victor K2 to VC10 to Tristar to Voyager to keep the aforementioned in the air!

Quote:

I seem to recall that as part of our cashing in of the "peace dividend" UK plc closed a number of early warning radar sites up in the North of Scotland and various islands as the USSR and it's threat had disappeared never apparently to return.

In a wonderful piece of national 'peace dividend' cashing-in, while making a mockery of 'joined-up NATO defence planning', we closed down Saxa Vord on the Shetlands while the Danes removed the radar from the Faroe Islands, well and truly putting the 'gap' back in to the GIUK Gap! Since that far-sighted decision, the RAF has continued to toy with the idea of making further budgetary savings by removing more UK ASACS radars.

But radars don't look sexy at airshows (unless rotating on the top of an E3D, and even that's a minority view).

"Scotland is expendable" :D:D

Quote:

"Scotland is expendable"

That may be, but if a force of "non-Russian-backed separatists" were to land there, the rest of us would look pretty stupid.

Quote:

Why not invite them down next Riat time and escort them to the show for a couple of passes.

Yes, as said by others, already been done. Tu-95 'In 1994, TWO Bears visited RAF Fairford - a Russian Navy Tu-142M and an Air
Force Tu-95MS.'

David Parry wrote

Quote:

Looks like Ivan, was inland..

No Tu-95s were inland over Cornwall. The woman just misidentified the RAF Voyager.

http://files.abovetopsecret.com/file...nv54e7dbf9.jpg

Playback on Flight Radar 24 should be available for the next few days.

Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker!

The two Tu-95MS Bear H were identified as serials RF-94130 (24 Red) and RF-94116 (28 Red)

94130 and 94116 are Engels based Bears.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Russi...95MS/2459497/L

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Russi...95MS/2270793/L

One Bear was recorded on HF Voice.

https://planesandstuff.wordpress.com/

I don't think the Russians have Comrade Hatton-caveski iin the motherland consigning old airframes to the knackers yard...

I think the no man no problem dictat comes into play... And tupolev don't have the lobbying power since old man Andrei grew wings and joined the collective in the sky.

https://planesandstuff.wordpress.com/

Quote:

In the last few years, Bear missions have increased from practically none a year to two a month, especially recently.

RNoAF QRA statistics:

Økt luftaktivitet i 2014 - Forsvaret.no

Mighty Gem wrote

Quote:

How come these aircraft are being intercepted down over the Channel, as opposed to north of Scotland as they used to be?

In the case of the 28th January English Channel mission they were. The footage released by the Russians is from the 28th January. FB is one of the QRA Typhoons from RAF Coningsby and noted by aircraft enthusiasts. In the footage you will see also see a 6 Squadron Typhoon from RAF Lossiemouth. These Bears were running down the west coast of Eire route.

Just been having a squint at Engels on google earth (photo dated May 2014) Around 16 or so Bears along the main hardstanding and a sprinkling of Blackjacks and other types elsewhere on the airfield. Interesting, and amazing to think images like this would have been highly classified some years back - the sort of stuff the U2 guys (and others) were taking huge risks to get.

TTN,

Interesting thought, suppose (say 12) Bears were launched one morning, all on various trips round the UK, all at the same time, how many would the QRA be able to say "hello" to ?

D.

Two extracts from informed letters in the Daily Telegraph today:

The welcome entry of Lord Prescott into the election campaign - Telegraph

From Air Vice Marshal Dennis Allison:

Quote:

. . . the Defence Secretary’s recent statements about interception of Russian bombers and “a clear and present danger” to the Baltic states are questionable.

First, why draw attention to the activity of Russian aircraft in international airspace around the United Kingdom (and over the Baltic Sea) when such flights have been going on without incident for over 40 years?

Secondly, the two Baltic States with a significant Russian-speaking population are protected by Nato. President Vladimir Putin will not start the Third World War unless the leaders of these two states follow the example of the Ukrainian president and decide to subdue their Russian-speaking subjects with artillery, tanks and aircraft.

and from Dr Alexander Yakovenko, Ambassador of the Russian Federation:

Quote:

. . . Russian planes do regularly fly to remote geographical areas and will continue to do so. This is required for personnel training and to verify aircraft capabilities. All flights are carried out in strict accordance with international regulations.

Flights of Russian military aircraft are often accompanied by jets from Nato countries and their partners. This is ordinary practice, and the level of public attention on the latest incidents in the vicinity of British airspace is overblown.

Military activity by Nato aircraft at Russian borders is far more intense, having doubled since early 2014 and reaching 3,000 sorties that year.

By way of comparison, Russian reconnaissance aircraft carried out just over 200 sorties over the Baltic Sea area from March to December 2014, compared to 125 over the same period in 2013.

The growing disparity between the actual situation and the official rhetoric of some Western leaders is not helpful for restoring trust, which is probably the main victim of the current crisis in relations between Russia and the West.

Is the real problem just bad journalism?