Perhas they wanted an up close look at the RAF's new toy.

It is the fist time the £60m Eurofighter has been scrambled on a genuine alert since it took over defence of Britain's airspace in June.

Nothing really new here - it happened a few weeks ago and has been going on for years,pretty much since the start of the cold war, and beyond, it's all part of the game these people play.

The long hibernating bear wants everyone to know its aake again.Just like guam last week.I guess we will also resume the tit-for-tat annoying tactics as well soon.

I'm with Implosion on this one.

They landed what they wanted, which is a closer look at a Typhoon kitted out to go Bear hunting (pardon the pun), because they hadn't seen it in operational mode up to that point.

Well call me an old cynic but I think the guy in the video on Sky News hit the nail on the head.

A controversial £600 million aircraft needs to be justified to the doubters, so put in a call to our old friends to send an old bomber across so the lovely new but expensive Eurofighter can show it's worth.

You know I would of hoped they could be a little more inventive.

Damn I sound even more cynical then I thought.

Interesting story... seems that Russia is starting to revert back to its old Cold War sorties towards NATO territory.

A question for the airforce buffs - is the Bear actually a feasible bomber anymore? A propeller-driven plane facing two £60million interceptors seems a bit of a one-sided fight to me

This is worrying for several reason to me.

Firstly, why would Russia want to start antagonising the west again.
Secondly, if this bomber is a prop powered jobby - how sloe must our buys have been going and how much intel will they have got from that?
Thirdly, Surely they have plans and that of our fighters....

All sounds a little odd to me

peace

Originally posted by Ste2652
A question for the airforce buffs - is the Bear actually a feasible bomber anymore? A propeller-driven plane facing two £60million interceptors seems a bit of a one-sided fight to me

Oh you bet it is.
Both in the recconaissance sense and an attack platform sense.

Originally posted by Ste2652
A question for the airforce buffs - is the Bear actually a feasible bomber anymore? A propeller-driven plane facing two £60million interceptors seems a bit of a one-sided fight to me

Its as feasible as the B-52 is.

Remember, it doesn't need to overfly its target, it can stand off from range.

Originally posted by more_serotonin_pls
Firstly, why would Russia want to start antagonising the west again.

Well, it has an expanding European Union on its border and expanding into former USSR states and the United States promoting democracy underneath them.

Then the internal politics. Rapidly growing immigrant population, increasing democracy movement and a large minority who want Russia to join the European Union.

And, the world's next superpower behind them. I know Russia and China are allies, but I suspect some in Moscow will be worried about an expanding China.

Mix it all together, you get a paranoid government.

Originally posted by more_serotonin_pls
This is worrying for several reason to me.

Firstly, why would Russia want to start antagonising the west again.

Maybe because the West is antaganosing them a little? The EU has expanded to the Russian border, the US wants to stick its missile interceptors in mainland Europe, a major war has just been fought in the Middle East ostensibly for oil and - not many people seem to be aware of this - the "ferret" flights by OUR side never really stopped after the end of the Cold War. The Russians have already stated that their expansion back into old patrols is a direct response to similar Western actions.

Secondly, if this bomber is a prop powered jobby - how sloe must our buys have been going and how much intel will they have got from that?

Alot. That big bad Bear probably was an ELINT aircraft. It will have recorded every transmission put out by the Typhoon. The intel guys on board will have noted the weapon load out, the number of drop tanks and the planes trim configurations. They will have analysed the interception time, the approach vector of the Typhoons, its radar signature, whatever manouvers the pilots carried out and a whole host of other stuff right down to the transmission frequencies and call signs used by the pilots and ground controllers, anything that might give them an edge in combat. Our guys will have done the same with the Bear.

Thirdly, Surely they have plans and that of our fighters....

All sounds a little odd to me

peace

They will have plans, but short of visiting airshows and/or carrying out a "Firefox" style theft, they won't have seen the real thing, tooled up and ready to go. the best way for them to do that is to fly their version of the B-52 straight towards the UK and see what comes there way. If the RAF had been more canny it could have sent F-3's and kept them guessing, but I think this was more a case of "you wanted to see this, so here it is, it has teeth and it can bite if need be". The political message works both ways.

neformore, outstanding. Bingo!

Sounds like someone may have had some training in certain areas. And you said you wouldn't tell.

ELINT. That's exactly what happened here, but was it a stunt?

One other thing. A Bear by itself? That is not a normal Soviet tactic. Bears usually travel with other aircraft. They have no close ACM defense. Well, unless you call the guns in the turrots something to worry about in 2007.

Something is wrong with this whole picture. Somethings rotten at the Krem!

Dont know if this will help anyone, its said it was a bear H model from my understanding thats one is kitted out to fire cruise missiles. This would make it a very good long ranged attack platform and the need of the RAF to get to it at a great distance.

this is all strange china russia major war games same as iran and a masive us naval build up in the persian gulf does anyone smell a war looming over head i also heard russia to operate there long range strategic bombers

I smell a very large war actually. Something is definitely going on and it is making me, for one, rather nervous.

It's like everyone is getting their armed forces ready to go and 'in the zone' so to speak. I'm just wondering what the catalyst that's gonna make everything flare up will be.

neformore - thank you for that wonderful response to my post. If I ever need a question on military stuff answering, I shall hunt you down to ask.

your not the only one worried it is strange two powers flexxing there military muscle while we see a massive us build up russia and china are allies of iran and iran has over the past year or so been preparing for the worst i think we all no there will be war but when will other countries such as uk join? this could be to check raf deffences incase we did get involved but hey i might be wrong.

but one thing before we went to war with iraq didnt we put sanctions on them and build up our forces before we launched the first strike.

sorry if it went abit off topic