Could we see Iranian and Russian warplanes in British skies?

Not a chance!
What the general public do not realise is that there are 2 RAF bases in the UK, one of them being RAF leuchars and somewhere else i can't remember now, where there are Tornados and Typhoons on continuous readiness and can respond within minutes, and then you have the RAF Air Command which is the equivalent of NORAD in the US.

Originally posted by Itop1
Not a chance!
What the general public do not realise is that there are 2 RAF bases in the UK, one of them being RAF leuchars and somewhere else i can't remember now, where there are Tornados and Typhoons on continuous readiness and can respond within minutes,

The other base is RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, England. Some other posters have mentioned the Tornado too. The air defence variant of the Tornado (Tornado F3) were retired in Spring 2011. The Eurofighter Typhoon is the only RAF fighter aircraft standing quick reaction alert at the two bases (RAF Leuchars in Scotland, and RAF Coningsby in England). The Tornado ground attack variant still operates with the RAF.

Tornado F3 retires from RAF link

www.flightglobal.com...

The most recent RAF intercept of a Russian Tu-95 Bear H was during October 2011. These intercepts are conducted in international airspace.



December might be a busy month for RAF and NATO intercepts as the Russian aircraft carrier battle group is due to set sail on its winter deployment. The Russians normally send out their strategic bombers to exercise with the battle group.

www.barentsobserver.com...

Originally posted by fiftyfifty
With their strong relationship with Russia (who have also said to the world where exactly they stand with the UK and US), it could be quite feasible for them to send fighters via Russia and the Baltic sea to our airspace.

Not a chance in hell of Russia allowing such a scenario. As already pointed out by other posters it would invoke the NATO Article 5. Not even the Russians send fighters off the coast of the UK. The logistics alone prevent it. The Russians also have no access out of the Baltic for their aircraft. They would have to violate Danish (NATO) and Swedish airspace to do so. The only way out for Russian aircraft in peacetime is over the top and down past Norway.

There will never be Iranian military planes in British airspace.


Iran has no Air Force.

They've got some old American F-14's they can't get parts for to fly. And they've got a couple other 1950's planes that aren't even fit to be displayed in museums.



Why do you people think Iran has a military? They don't.

Russia isn't a threat either. They get a little money from Europe for their oil/gas.....France alone could beat Russia's Air Force with the little fighter UAV's they made with Russian energy.

6th Generation Fighters=smaller and without humans. Russian fighters will never see them. Russia's Air Force is no threat to England.

Originally posted by Pervius
There will never be Iranian military planes in British airspace.

Iran has no Air Force.

They've got some old American F-14's they can't get parts for to fly. And they've got a couple other 1950's planes that aren't even fit to be displayed in museums.

That is not the case. The Iranians have invested a lot of money in manufacturing their own parts for their old US assets. It is all they basically have apart from a the likes of MiG-29s and
Su-24, Su-25s from Russia. Russia won't even sell them any of the Su-27 Flanker series so they have to rely on what they have. The amount of money that they spend on manufacturing parts must be enormous but they still operate healthy numbers of F-4, F-5 and F-14s. They have no option due to arms embargoes and their own paranoia on relying on outside arms supplies.

Have a scroll through Airliners.net on Iran.

www.airliners.net...

www.airliners.net...

www.airliners.net...

www.airliners.net...

www.airliners.net...

Originally posted by tommyjo
The other base is RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, England. Some other posters have mentioned the Tornado too. The air defence variant of the Tornado (Tornado F3) were retired in Spring 2011.

Indeed, I forgot about them being retired..

Thanks for the correction

Originally posted by Flavian
As for Iranian jets getting here, not a chance. They would be blown out of the sky as soon as they entered UK airspace.

Surely Iranian warplanes would run out of fuel somewhere over the Black Sea, so they would not even have the pleasure of attempting to overfly least seven NATO nations. Methinks the prospect of Iranian warplanes flying over the Home Counties is remote and the OP needs to look at an atlas.

As for the Russians. This is a game that has been played for decades, with Soviet / Russian bombers regularly flying to the UK and being met by British fighters. In a war, Russian bombers would stand little chance and may not even get within any distance of the UK on account of the fact the rest of NATO would be involved.

It is not going to happen. All this talk of war.

Regards

reply to post by stumason


You are of course correct that they are attack subs but they are also fitted with TLAM's (Tomahawk Land Air Missiles) and TacTom's (Tactical Tomahawks) and also have the VLS (verticle launch system).

The point i was making was that the hypothetical jets would have been identified long before any of those jets reached anywhere near UK territory. Their points of origin would also have been identified and targets would be locked from a variety of locations.

reply to post by Flavian


Well, I know they can fire Tomahawks, but as they (Tomahawks) aren't capable of attacking jets I assumed you didn't mean them, but I see now your indicating that they would strike the point of origin (at least, that's what I think you're saying!)

reply to post by stumason


It was really kind of an add on to me saying beforehand that we have lots of cool kit as premier table toppers of the war boys club (with our neighbours over the pond).

It surprises me that China has not been mentioned in this discussion.

Russia and China together are a force to be reckoned with and nobody knows what happens behind the scenes with Russia, China, Syria and Iran.

Nato have been the global 'moral' response for a while, they have made relations around the world worse than ever by all apparent appearances. I think that some countries have been planning for a very long time for the situation we are all in now.

warfare is a dirty business. Biological agents would have a dreadful effect on Britain. I think that many awful things would happen before the planes of hostile countries are flying at will over here. It is not impossible though.

I fear for my children but hope for the best.

reply to post by Threegirls


Well we know there is plenty of historic animosity between China and Russia (think thousands of years). Whatever the short term goals may be for those two countries, such a length of distrust and suspicion is not easily removed.

reply to post by Flavian


An interesting book that supports that notion is the "Foundations of Geopolitics" that appears to be a textbook used in the General Staff Academy of Russian military.

en.wikipedia.org...

From all the geopolitical works I've read it seems you can't trust anyone especially when they have empirical aims and the more nations that have empirical aims the higher the chance we end up stuck in another Great War.

reply to post by Threegirls


Well, I know that people like to match China and Russia together, but why? They are both autocratic and usually are seen to side with each other against the liberal Western democracies. However, they have a history of antagonism and mistrust which has only improved over the last decade.

Both Russia and China are now closer, but there is no evidence that they would form a military alliance nor any evidence that their world view is synchronised. For example, Russia sees Iran as being part of their sphere of influence based on historical involvement and meddling (yes, it was not just the US and British) and the fact they Iran is a counter in the Middle East dominated by the West. China’s motivation is economic, in that they just want oil.

Regards

reply to post by thoughtsfull


That is an interesting read. Is it a response to Huntingdon's 'Clash of the Civilisations'? That scary essay after all was the basis for western foreign policy for a while so it would be reasonable to expect a response!

I do not like the 'cut off the UK' part of it at all. Maybe they are just annoyed that the oligarchs have relocated to London!

Russia didn't side with China 100 years ago in the "Boxer Rebellion".

US/Europe/Russia (white boyz) all ganged together and toppled China in the "Boxer Rebellion". Made China pay 36 million pounds of silver for 'reparations'.


WWII...China never got Reparations from Japan.........they got robbed 60 years ago as well.

Now it's going to happen again.

White Boys will stick together.

Just think OP it took the RAF 20 minutes on one occasion to even notice the bomber because of mainteneance to a radar station. Now that the RAF & other defence measures have been cut we could be nuked, obliterated and wiped off the face of the earth before the RAF could say "Oops my bad".

I think it's a plausible idea and no doubt Russia has plans in place to attack western countries and it's only us & then America THOUSANDS of miles away from us. Who would you go for?

reply to post by R3N3G4D3


Care to provide any proof of this "one occasion"? Or is this one of those "my mate said"?

And stop with the parrotting of the Daily Mail paranoia.

The Armed forces havne't been gutted, are very capable and the majority of the "cuts" are merely mothballing older kit sooner and waiting for a bit longer on replacements, dragging out the cost. Much of what has been written about the cuts is bollocks or blown out of proportion, much like the Public Sector rubbish, or any other story which the papers think will get a rise out of people and make them money..

And don't forget there was an SDR recently which has changed our outlook. We no longer need massive amounts of Tanks and fast jets, they're not the wars we're fighting anymore and haven't fought for decades. We're investing in a lot of UCAV's and lighter vehicles and have a Frigate replacement plan alongside the Destroyers, Carriers and Submarines. There is a huge amount of shiny new toys coming through that will actually make our Armed forces very capable in the kid of theatres we're most likely going to be in over the next 50 years.

reply to post by R3N3G4D3


And it matters not how many Jets or Tanks we have if you're talking about Nukes.

We could have 5,000 fighter jets and we'd still see the mushroom clouds.

Ive got a better question: Why?

Originally posted by fiftyfifty
I am not an expert on politics and don't claim to understand the entirety of what is currently happening in this arena. My question is to those who may know more or at least have a strong opinion about the possible impact of a direct military strike on Iran by the British Armed Forces.

It is looking more and more likely that the current tensions between the UK and Iran could result in military action. Unlike in Libya or Iraq for example, I believe that a brutal retaliation from the Iranian forces would be a possibility. With their strong relationship with Russia (who have also said to the world where exactly they stand with the UK and US), it could be quite feasible for them to send fighters via Russia and the Baltic sea to our airspace.

We have seen in the past, Russian Bombers coming close to British Airspace demonstrating their capability. The RAF have made many cuts and isn't as strong as it used to be. Key British infrastructure facilities, especially OUR nuclear facilities could be targeted.

How likely is this and what would the consequences be?

edit on 30-11-2011 by fiftyfifty because: (no reason given)