The RAF has been scrambled to intercept two long-range Russian bombers over the North Sea.

The Tupolev Tu-160s, known to Nato as Blackjacks, were monitored on Monday as they flew past Norway and Denmark and near the Netherlands.

Two Typhoon jets from RAF Lossiemouth picked them up about 30 miles (48km) from UK airspace and escorted them.

Both Russia and Nato, including Britain, routinely test reactions with such sorties, sometimes flying almost up to the boundaries of each other’s airspace. Blackjacks make flights close to UK airspace about eight to nine times a year.



Russian fighters tend not to use transponders, which alert other aircraft to their presence, and this policy can create problems for civilian planes in the area. The RAF escort is partly to alert other aircraft to the Russian presence.

Despite an increase in diplomatic tension between Moscow and the west, the number of such sorties by Russia towards UK airspace has not increased. However, there has been a rise in activity by Russia around the Baltic states, where the RAF is also deployed.

An RAF spokesman said: “The Russian aircraft were initially monitored by a variety of friendly nation fighters and subsequently intercepted by the RAF in the North Sea. At no point did the Russian aircraft enter sovereign UK airspace.”