The Russian Northern Fleet announced yesterday that a pair of Tu-142 long-range maritime patrol aircraft flew a mission over the Barents, Norwegian and North Seas. The Russian flight came a day after Exercise “Point Blank,” the massive air combat exercise over the North Sea that involved the RAF, USAF and the Netherlands. According to the official Russian release, “On Sept.12, two long-range antisubmarine aircraft Tu-142 of the Northern Fleet made scheduled flights over the neutral waters of the Barents, Norwegian and North Seas. The flight lasted over 11 hours.”
The Russians also announced that the Tu-142 flights had been accompanied for part of the route by foreign fighter jets. The U.K. Ministry of Defense also confirmed that RAF Eurofighter Typhoons were scrambled into action after the Tupolev Tu-142 planes “entered the U.K.’s controlled zone of international airspace” off the coast of Scotland, reported the Independent.
