Typhoon fighter jets have been scrambled to intercept Russian Bear bombers approaching the UK for the second day in a row, the Royal Air Force (RAF) has said.
The jets, launched from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland, were joined by a Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
A spokesperson for the RAF said the two RussianTu-95 Bear F aircraft were “intercepted and escorted”. At no point did the aircraft enter UK airspace.
The RAF routinely intercepts aircraft approaching what it describes as the “UK area of interest”.
The news comes a day after four Russian Bear aircraft entering a UK area of interest triggering the release of Typhoon jets from RAF Lossiemouth and a Voyager from RAF Brize Norton.
An RAF spokesperson on Wednesday said they too were “intercepted and escorted”.
UK Defence Journal editor George Allison said on Twitter that the Voyager tanker was transmitting a transponder code indicating it was “conducting a Nato air policing mission”.
This, he added was a mission “which aims to preserve the security of alliance airspace”.
Footage released by the Russian Ministry of Defence earlier on Thursday showed a Russian bomber, of the same type that was intercepted on Wednesday, being flanked by two RAF jets while on “a planned flight”.
A spokesperson for the RAF said: “Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighters based at RAF Lossiemouth supported by a Voyager from RAF Brize Norton were scrambled today against aircraft approaching the UK area of interest. Subsequently we intercepted and escorted two RussianTu-95 Bear F aircraft.”
It comes amid heightened tensions with Russia, which currently has more than 100,000 troops at the border with Ukraine.
In a phone call on Wednesday Boris Johnson warned Russian president Vladimir Putin that a further incursion into Ukraine would be a “tragic miscalculation”.
Additional reporting by PA
