Royal Air Force Intentionally Runs Provocative Campaign against Russia

Sept. 21, 2020 (EIRNS)—The British are engaged in a set of military operations against Russia deliberately designed to be provocative. This is shown in a Sunday Times report of yesterday, on British military provocations around Russia’s periphery, both in the Barents Sea region and the Black Sea. According to the report, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy have dramatically increased patrols around Russia’s peripheries “in an unprecedented operation to put Moscow’s military on the defensive.” Just since the last week of August, 28 RAF aircraft have been sent to Russia’s coastline both in the Black Sea and off the Kola Peninsula in the Arctic, involving as many as five British aircraft at a time. Aircraft types involved have included Typhoon fighters, Voyager air refueling tankers, and Sentinel, RC-135 and E-3 AWACS (airborne early warning and control system) reconnaissance aircraft.

There should be no doubt these operations are deliberately provocative. Andrew Brookes, a retired RAF wing commander (the equivalent of lieutenant colonel) and veteran of Cold War spy flights, told the Times that the new missions were a response to Russian actions, including the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and increasing Russian air force flights over the North Sea. “We are telling [Vladimir] Putin we have given up talking about things—we are getting in his face,” he said. “This is a sign that we have finally stopped talking about responding and have started to do something in response. We are going into Russia’s backyard and standing up to their bullying.”

“The air and naval patrols drive the Russians bonkers,” said an obviously excited British military source.

“They have been scrambling their fighters and putting ships and submarines to sea in response, allowing the RAF spy planes to hoover up intelligence on their radar transmissions and radio communications. In the Cold War these were called ‘ferret missions,’ after the analogy of dropping a ferret down a rabbit hole and seeing what happens. It forces them to react to what we are doing, rather than the other way around.”