Typhoon Intercept

/ thinkdefence

Another day, another intercept

RAF Typhoons were yesterday (Tuesday 17 June) scrambled to intercept multiple Russian aircraft as part of NATO’s ongoing mission to police Baltic airspace.

The Typhoon aircraft, from 3 (Fighter) Squadron, were launched after four separate groups of aircraft were detected by NATO air defences in international airspace near to the Baltic States.

Once airborne, the British jets identified the aircraft as a Russian Tupolev Tu22 ‘Backfire’ bomber, four Sukhoi Su27 ‘Flanker’ fighters, one Beriev A50 ‘Mainstay’ early warning aircraft and an Antonov An26 ‘Curl’ transport aircraft who appeared to be carrying out a variety of routine training. The Russian aircraft were monitored by the RAF Typhoons and escorted on their way.

The Typhoon pilots involved in the operation were Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Mark Long of 29 (Reserve) Squadron (the Typhoon operational training unit) and a French Air Force exchange pilot Commandant Marc-antoine Gerrard who is currently attached to 1(Fighter) Squadron.

Mainstay 01

Beriev A50 ‘Mainstay’ early warning aircraft

Mainstay 02

Beriev A50 ‘Mainstay’ early warning aircraft

Blackjack Intercept

Tupolev Tu22 ‘Backfire’ bomber

Typhoon SU27 Intercept 01

Sukhoi Su27 ‘Flanker’ fighters

Typhoon SU27 Intercept 03

Sukhoi Su27 ‘Flanker’ fighters

Typhoon SU27 Intercept 02

Sukhoi Su27 ‘Flanker’ fighters

Typhoon SU27 Intercept 04

Sukhoi Su27 ‘Flanker’ fighters

AN32 Intercept 02

Antonov An26 ‘Curl’ transport aircraft

AN32 Intercept

Antonov An26 ‘Curl’ transport aircraft

 

19 thoughts on “Typhoon Intercept”

  1. I never really appreciated the size difference between the Flanker and the Typhoon until now: Is it me or do those flankers emit a lot of smoke?

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  2. Ian, not sure if you can really tell relative size from that photo. The Typhoon is further in the background, so it’s going to look smaller.

    And the smoke is only from one specific plane. My guess is that he hit a bit of afterburner to accelerate past the other 2.

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  3. It seems interesting to me that we have exchanges with the French Air Force to the extent that they are piloting ready alert aircraft. Is that common with other NATO forces as well? I’d sort of expected it with US and Commonwealth, less so across NATO.

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  6. The Typhoon and Flanker loadouts seem to be relativly standard A2A fits. Interested to see that frontline flankers still arn’t carrying Adders yet and are still stuck with the R-26’s, they must be one of the last serious airfoces in the world still with a SARH missiles Pimary weapon.

    Does anyone know about, what I think is a Kitchen Missile, hanging of the bottom of the backfire and the fact that is red? does that denote a training round or similar.

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  7. Is the typhoon in picture 4 carrying 3 drop tanks which is slightly unusual? Is there a voyager supporting this qra or another NATO tanker?

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  8. Shackvan, probably a training round, no point clocking up the hours on a live one for a training exercise. It is an interesting colour to paint a training round though. Different systems I guess. I can see some advantages to it, similar to how the West paints training targets orange, helps you see where the round went.

    Provided that it isn’t an inert dummy just there for the weight…

    Corin, it looks like all old stuff. Alamos backed up by Archers.

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  9. The Big Red Missile™ hanging underneath the Big Scary Bomber™ makes for an excellent Media image.

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  11. Spidapex, it is, the Typhoon is more Mig-29 sized than Su-27 sized (about 30% smaller, more or less). My point was that you can’t use a photo to judge unless the items are side by side. I’m betting that if the Typhoon was in the foreground and the Su-27 was in the back, the Typhoon would look larger than the Su-27.

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  15. @Phil

    … damn lousy post-it notes and their weak adhesion! Look whats happened to the RN and Army because of loosing those “cold war relic” memos 😉

    The Tu-22M3 can carry 3 of the things, capable of wiping any ship off the surface of the sea… if it can get to that ship… These things were the reason of existence for the F-14 and CIWS, the sole reason the bomber was created was in an effort to deliver that missile, (orange is their ‘drill round’ colour) once over 300 in service… now less than 60, half flying. Impressive if like much of the legacy Russian forces equipment, obsolete for some time… though an upgrade will keep them relevant.

    Interesting to know that a couple of these came within sight of the Swedish coast a couple of months ago, caused a big stink.
    Likely as much of a threat as the Kuznetsov was when she and her tug toured around the UK…

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  16. @Mike
    was it not last year they flew an attack profile on Stockholm , the Swedes dropped the ball and the interecept was made by Danish F16s on NATO duties?

    The AS4 is a beast but a simple beast, easily tracked and allows hard kill followed by soft kill and then PDMS if required.

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  19. It’s not size that matters it’s what you do with it that counts!

    If i had a fully armed Typhoon bearing down on me at a swift pace i’d be at least a little nervous.

    This is the Russian’s all over, a fair bit of style to make up for the gaping lack of substance.

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