[Video] Russian strategic bomber films British and French jets escorting it

February 19, 2015 Military Aviation
David Cenciotti

British and French fighter jets shadow a Russian Tu-95 bomber, and surprisingly the footage is recorded by the crew members of the Tu-95.

Here is an interesting video filmed from inside a Tu-95 Bear escorted by Royal Air Force Typhoons and French Air Force Mirage 2000s during one of the recent missions of the Russian Air Force strategic bombers in northern Europe.

Even though RAF jets were scrambled on Feb. 18 to intercept two Tu-95MS bombers off the Cornwall coast, the footage was probably filmed on Jan. 29, when two Bears, accompanied by Mig-31 Foxhound long-range interceptors, were refueled twice by Il-78 Midas aerial refuelers and were intercepted and escorted by RAF Typhoons, Norwegian F-16s and French Mirage 2000s at various stages of their trip.

Indeed, the video briefly shows also an armed French Mirage shadowing the Russian Bear.

H/T to Ka Kiu Chan for the heads up

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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13 Comments

  3. how does the plane to move forward despite the propellers are in the “flag position”?
    Okay the effect “engine stopped” due to the synchronization of the camera, but I do not understand the position of the propellers.
    They should have an angle, relative to the motor axis, of about 90°. Here it seems that they are at 0°

    • They are at the correct angle for high rpm and at high-speed cruise….we’re talking close to 400mph here.

    • flag position ? What??
      The pitch is as required to perform high speed flight..it’s not a damn ATR or dash…

    • The angle to the air is more important than the angle to the hub.

      Fine pitch for cruise is very close to feathered.

  4. Are the Russians really impressing anybody, flying noisy 60 year old aircraft with huge radar signatures, into our and the Brits’ back yards? What’s the point? These planes are zero threat, and have not been taken seriously for decades. The fighter pilots must be laughing. I heard one theory that the Bears are masking incursions by more modern, stealthier, Russian aircraft. Does anybody know if this is correct?

    • These are new-build Tu-95MS Bear H. The last one rolled off the line in the early 1990s after production started in the 1980s. Yes they are very much a threat and used in the same role as the USAF use the B-52H. Their strategic role is stand off nuclear Air Launched Cruise Missile carriers. In reality the Tu-95MS can stand off thousands of mile away from a target and deploy their ALCMs. They only choose to probe the periphery of NATO airspace as part of their mission. The reality is that they will have gone through the practice missile launch procedures well outside the range of interceptor aircraft.

      Do a search for the ALCM Raduga Kh-101 and note the range. The endurance and range of the Tu-95MS coupled with such long range cruise missiles makes it a potent threat and a viable part of the nuclear triad. Take a look at a map and imagine an Arctic mission profile combined with Kh-101s.

      http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/russia-to-field-kh-101-cruise-missile-next-year-376954/

      The periphery flights around NATO airspace resultng in QRA intercept is just probing, sabre-rattling and a bit of routine intelligence gathering. It is also a good bit of morale boosting for the bomber crews to get up close and personal with NATO. It would be a pretty boring and uninspiring mission if they turned back thousands of miles away at the potential missile stand-off launch point and flew back to base.

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