A British Royal Air Force Typhoon and two Dutch F-16 fighter planes were scrambled today to confront a pair of TU-95 Russian bombers as they flew close to United Kingdom airspace.
The planes were sighted off the coast of Scotland, and were chased away without incident. Such flights, testing NATO air defense, were extremely common during the Cold War, and still happen a couple of times a year.
Normally the flights are scarcely covered by the media, but the current tension between NATO and Russia have everyone more on edge than usual, though it is unlikely the TU-95s, an extremely outdated propeller-powered bomber, were a serious military threat.
British officials also report a Russian destroyer, the Vice-Admiral Kulakov, is off the waters north of Scotland, though it is unclear if this deployment is at all related. Britain’s HMS Dragon is in the vicinity to “keep an eye” on the ship.
