A Russian bomber has infiltrated deeper into Britain’s air defences than at any time since the cold war and come within sight of the Scottish coast at St Andrews.
Two Tornado F3 fighter aircraft from RAF Leuchars, five miles north of the university town, were scrambled to head off the Tupolev Tu-95 as it approached British airspace last week.
However, the Russian pilot ignored the standard protocols of such interceptions and pulled back only when he was within seconds of entering British airspace and causing an international incident.
It took place at night and the Tornado crews could clearly see the lights of St Andrews as they flew alongside the Tu-95 “Bear”, a propeller-driven craft capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The plane, thought to have been accompanied by at least one other further out to sea, appeared to taunt the British pilots by flying so close to their base.
“It was all a bit tense,” said a senior RAF source.
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A pilot flying 12 miles from the coast at 500mph needs to tweak the controls only slightly to be over land in less than two minutes. The sources warned that Russia was testing the impact of defence cuts on the RAF’s ability to guard British airspace.
The Tornado F3 fighters that intercepted the Bear are due to be scrapped at the end of this month and replaced by Typhoons, but the future of RAF Leuchars is uncertain. The Ministry of Defence is considering scrapping the northern “quick reaction alert” base altogether and focusing Britain’s air defences on RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, as part of cuts to save £38 billion from the defence budget over the next 10 years.
The axeing of Nimrod spy planes from RAF Kinloss in Moray led last October to Britain losing track of a Russian submarine passing by northern Scotland.
“The Russians are sticking two fingers up at us and showing up how thinly stretched we are,” the RAF source said.
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“If we have to send aircraft to patrol a no-fly zone over Libya, we will be unable to protect our own back door. Then the MoD will have to bite the bullet and keep the Tornado F3s in service.”
Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, said the Bear’s flight emphasised the problems caused by the cuts.
“This will be extremely worrying for people and they will want clarity about Britain's ability to defend itself,” he said.
“Serious people are asking serious questions about the capability gap left by the government’s defence review. Morale in our armed forces is low as is this government’s credibility on defence.”
RAF fighter aircraft were scrambled 15 times last year to intercept Russian Bear and Blackjack bombers testing air defences.
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The incidents were common during the cold war but came to an end in the 1990s before reappearing in late 2006. Since then RAF aircraft have scrambled about 65 times to intercept Russian bombers coming into the UK Air Defence Identification Zone, which extends about 150 miles out into the North Sea.
An RAF spokeswoman said: “Aircraft were launched last week to identify unknown aircraft that were flying in international airspace over the North Sea. The aircraft, identified as Russian military, did not enter UK sovereign airspace.”