Royal Air Force Tornado F-3s were this week scrambled to ward off the presence of a pair of Russian Air Force strategic bombers, whose flightpaths were vectored towards British airspace. The scramble and subsequent encounter, which the RAF has called "rare", stood, for some analysts, as a powerful symbol for the current heated exchanges between London and Moscow, in respect of the killing of Alexander Litvinenko.

The Russian aircraft were Tupolev Tu-95 Bears, associated for so many years with the Cold War. The huge, growling bombers had taken off from their base, which is located on the Arctic's Kola Peninsula. This type of aircraft, according to sources within the RAF, is a relatively regular visitor to the Norwegian coastline, but for it to attempt to violate UK airspace was, they added, highly unusual.

It is understood that the Bears were initially met by a pair of Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons. With these as escorts, the situation was subsequently addressed by two RAF Tornado F3s, operating from their base at RAF Leeming. They had been scrambled in line with the RAF's QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) procedure. 'QRA' itself received significant coverage in a recent Armed Forces International News Item, which detailed the RAF Typhoon fleets' new adoption of this role.

According to a spokesman from the RAF, the "Russians turned back before they reached UK airspace".

To date, no evidence has been presented that substantiates any form of connection between this event, and the recent extradition of the principal subject involved in the Litvinenko murder - Andrei Lugovoy. While some analysts did describe it as a kind of Kremlin-originated display of military defiance, Moscow itself confirmed that the Bears were merely on a routine training flight.

Alexander Zelin, a Russian Air Force Commander Colonel General, detailed this further, in conversation with the news agency Interfax. He stated: "Our planes were flying planned flights over neutral waters. Such flights have been carried out and will be carried out in line with a plan for training long-range aircraft crews."

Mr Zelin continued: "We plan flights of bombers in line with a combat training programme at least half a year beforehand. We resolve our domestic problems in training flight crews and do not interfere in politics." Furthermore, he described notions of the Bears flight being connected to the Litvinenko murder as "sheer nonsense".

Source - Armed Forces International Newsdesk

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