According to the Cyprus-based Famagusta Gazette, the RAF Typhoons based at Akrotiri, Cyprus, to provide the air defense of the island following the Syrian crisis, nearly battled with Turkish jets in a close encounter on Sept. 2.
It looks like Turkey scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from Incirlik airbase, to intercept the British Typhoons that had allegedly violated the airspace over the occupied part of Cyprus.
According to the details collected by the Cypriot media outlet, the UK Ministry of Defence and Cyprus Defence Minister confirmed the incident, however it’s not clear whether the British planes scrambled to intercept the Turkish fighters “after radars detected suspicious flights in the area of the occupied city of Famagusta,” or viceversa.
In fact, after explaining that the RAF Typhoons were launched to investigate the suspicious activity, the article goes on reporting that “it is understood the Turkish jets took off from Incirlik air base in Turkey, in order to intercept the British planes,” and that “the British planes had returned to Akrotiri by time the Turkish jets arrived in northern Cyprus airspace.”
The dispute over the Turkish occupied northern part of Cyprus is reflected by active NOTAMs (Notice To Airmen):
NAVIGATIONAL WARNING TO ALL CONCERNED REFERENCE IS MADE TO TURKISH NOTAM A2652/05 AND WISH TO STATE THAT THE SO-CALLED ERCAN AIRPORT (LCEN) IS AN UNAUTHORISED AIRPORT OPERATING IN THE OCCUPIED BY TURKEY NORTHERN PART OF THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS (CYPRUS AIC A06/02 REFERS). CYPRUS GOVERNMENT AS THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITY AND THE ONLY RECOGNISED GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER REGISTERED ABBREVIATION CODE LCEN WITH ICAO. THEREFORE THIS CODE AND THIS ILLEGAL AIRPORT SHOULD NOT BE USED. 24 NOV 14:30 2005 UNTIL PERM. CREATED: 24 NOV 14:53 2005
We will publish any further details as soon as they become available.
Image credit: Eurofighter
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Thats allmost as good as resending rodman to north korea.
It’s a good thing those Turkish F-16’s didn’t engage the typhoons. Because the F-16’s would’ve been destroyed in a heartbeat.
Leaving aside the fact that both Air Forces are NATO allies
your assertions are technically wrong. Turkish F-16’s are one of the most
advanced in the world and on par with their US and Israeli counterparts. Turkey
fields a large number (240+) of Advanced Block 50+ and CCIP vipers all armed
with AMRAAM and AIM-9X air-to-air missiles and supported by Boeing
737-MESA AWACS. Cyprus is approximately 80km from the nearest Turkish Air bases.
The Royal Air Force has only 5 Typhoon’s stationed in Cyprus. During any dog
fight the Typhoons would be facing a large number of Turkish vipers and their
defences would be saturated.
did you really take Jake seriously or did you just want to show off your knowledge?
I don’t know what all that jargon means, but I could tell you turkish built f16s have a slightly better success rate than their american built counterparts.. and they come with full locally developed software system (for obvious reasons).
Technically they are not turkish built, they are built by a America, just the USAF is not willing to pay for block 50s lol.
Action, some facts for you. Turkish Aerospace Industries has licensed produced all F-16 in the Turkish Air Force inventory and also the Egyptian Air Force Inventory. Turkish vipers use indigenous IFF systems (Identification Friend or Foe)….have Conformal Fuel Tanks. Turkey is also the only country outside the USA to have been given the source codes to the F-16 by Lockheed Martin. Some also have indigenous mission computers. Turkey has 110 Block 50 F-16 and 130 CCIP.
@OmerAytac I take everyone seriously.
very informative thank you. I’d just like mention that the source codes were given when Lockheed realized that the local development was reaching a successful completion. It was probably too late by then.
A question: Do you have any info about % of cost of the software system to the cost of an f-16? (and now an f-22?)
and another note would be that now that the established pharaohs pulled of an idiotic coup in Egypt, the most they will be getting are the posters of those f16s..
And yet, one of those prized Turkish F-16s was shot down by a Greek Mirage 2000 in 1996!
I don’t know what the typhoons can do by they look like hand gliders to me.. but I hope we use the f-16s on assad’s parachute bomb dropping planes rather than brits’ hand gliders..
Is there any further confirmation of what reported, or this supposed clash was only reported by Famagusta Gazette without further witnesses?
How is it a near clash when the typhoons are landing as the F-16s are just about to arrive to the air space?
And what’s with the navigational warning? Every tourist and non-greek on the island use Ercan airport because it’s less crowded and closer to Nicosia..
No, every Turk uses Ercan, the rest of the world uses the internaitonally recognised airport of Cyprus in Larnaca.
I can easily prove that this is not the case..
According to Wikipedia, the Larnaca airport handled more than twice as many passengers in 2012 than the Ercan airport. Also it has many more Airlines operating and international destinations. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larnaca_International_Airport and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ercan_International_Airport
congrats! of course you realize that your rival is an airport that’s in a country which has been under embargo for 40 years right? :))) actually, I wish my country was under embargo.. no mcdonalds and no international financial institutions that can corrupt the system and bankrupt the country.. paradise!
Rumours are now circulating that the scramble was orderd after an AWACs picked up 2 low level contacts that turned out to be Syrian Su-24s; both TAF and Turkish aircraft responded byt the Sukhois turned back after they detected the inbound fighters