Russian Bear returns to test Lincs aircrews...

Good to see our Russian friends providing Lincolnshire-based aircrews with top-rate counter-terror training.

According to a report in the Lincolnshire Echo(from last week, missed at the time), Russian bombers have been intercepted by Royal Air Force fighters 28 times over the last seven months.

Newly operational Eurofighter Typhoons based at RAF Coningsby in south Lincs are regularly scrambled to shadow Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear-H and Tu-160 Blackjack bombers.

Throughout the Cold War era, regular cat and mouse 'games' tested reactions of both sides.

As a cub reporter on the Lincolnshire Standard in the late 1960s, I well remember the excitement of reporting - as much as we were allowed to know - how Lincolnshire-based RAF aircrews regularly intercepted Soviet bombers trying to nudge British airspace...

Then the fast jets of their day were the English Electric Lightnings - like the one pictured - and they flew from high on the Lincolnshire Wolds at RAF Binbrook between Louth and Grimsby.

It all ended of course in the nineties with the collapse of the Soviet Empire - and today's main threat is not the Cold War hotting up, but terrorism.

RAF Binbrook has long since closed. Today, RAF Coningsby in the south of the county is one of two so-called Quick Reaction Alert bases in the UK with the specific role of preventing hi-jacks.

But the Russian Bear flexing its muscles again unwittingly helps provide excellent training sorties to keep aircrews well practised in their skills...

Lincs fighters shadow the new Russian Bear...

Two of the RAF's newest jets were scrambled from their Lincolnshire base last Friday to shadow a Russian bomber over the North Atlantic ocean - as shown in this photo.

They were two of the dozen new Eurofighter Typhoon fighters based at RAF Coningsby which went operational last month on round-the-clock active duty to provide protection against hijacked airliners and other threats from the skies.

Friday's sortie came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced long-range flights by bomber aircraft would resume.

While the incident did not threaten British security, it no doubt sent the muscle-flexing Mr Putin a clear signal.

The Ministry of Defence said tonight that the Russian Bear-H aircraft turned back before reaching UK airspace - and they released this photo.

Britain has ordered 144 of the £67 million Typhoons, which have a maximum speed of twice the speed of sound and accelerate from standing to take-off in less than seven seconds.

The Typhoon programme supports thousands of UK jobs and continues a proud tradition of Lincolnshire's role in the security of Britain. In the Cold War of the 1960s, English Electric Lightnings based at RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire regularly intercepted Soviet bombers over the North Sea.

My late father who was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Medal served in the RAF for 36 years - retiring from RAF Coningsby in the mid-1970s.