LONDON: The UK today scrambled Royal Air Force fighter jets to intercepttwo Russian bomber planes that were headed towards its airspace over theNorth Sea, the latest incident involving Russia.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed that the Quick Reaction Alert(QRA) aircraft took off from Royal Air Force (RAF) base Lossiemouth innorth east Scotland, without confirming the exact number of Typhoonsinvolved.

“We can confirm that Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) Typhoon aircraft from RAFLossiemouth scrambled to monitor two Blackjack bombers approaching the UKarea of interest,” an MoD statement said.

“The Russian aircraft were initially monitored by a variety of friendlynation fighters and subsequently intercepted by the RAF in the North Sea.At no point did the Russian aircraft enter sovereign UK Airspace,” it said.

The closest the Russian jets came to the UK land was 40 nautical miles, oraround 46 miles and were 30 nautical miles (34.5 miles) from Britishsovereign airspace.

Typhoons are combat aircraft used in air policing and high-intensityconflict. A Voyager refuelling aircraft from the RAF Brize Norton base alsosupported the Typhoons during the operation.

RAF Lossiemouth is primarily used as a base for QRA, with pilots on duty 24hours a day. The latest incident is being seen as part of a number ofsimilar incidents involving Russia.

On January 8, it was reported HMS Westminster, a Portsmouth-based Type 23British frigate, was tasked to intercept two of Russia’s warships and twosupporting vessels as they passed close to the UK waters.

In September last year, two RAF Typhoons were scrambled to monitor a pairof Russian military planes flying towards the British airspace.