Telegraph: RAF scrambled jets 20 times to intercept Russians

Telegraph: RAF scrambled jets 20 times to intercept Russians

RAF jets have been scrambled 20 times in the last year to intercept Russian aircraft over British airspace, it was revealed today.

The revelation came as defence chiefs released photographs of two Russian Blackjack bombers intercepted over Scotland.

Two RAF Tornado F3 fighters from 111 Squadron were scrambled from RAF Leuchars in Fife in the early hours of March 10.

They intercepted the Russian planes near Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

The Tornados shadowed the bombers as they flew south before they turned north, just short of the Northern Ireland coast.

Eventually the Russians left UK airspace and, after four hours, the Tornado crews stood down and returned to Leuchars.

Wing Commander Mark Gorringe, commander of 111 Squadron, said: ''This is not an unusual incident and people may be surprised to know that our crews have successfully scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft on more than 20 occasions since the start of 2009.

''Our pilots, navigators and indeed all the support personnel at RAF Leuchars work very hard to deliver the UK Quick Reaction Alert Force 24 hours a day, which can be scrambled in minutes, to defend the UK from unidentified aircraft entering our airspace, or aircraft in distress.

''It's a very important job, defending the UK and helping to keep UK citizens safe.''

Bloomberg; Russia Vetoes Public Dismantling of UN Council’s Meeting Table

By Bill Varner

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- The world won’t be able to watch today as the United Nations Security Council’s horseshoe-shaped table is taken apart and moved to another room while the chamber undergoes renovation. Russia vetoed a public dismantling.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his government thought it would be “bad symbolism” for photographers and reporters to document the event, as the UN proposed. The council makes such decisions on the basis of consensus, meaning agreement of all 15 member governments is required.

Pictures of the table being taken apart would make it look “as if the United Nations and the Security Council is somehow falling apart,” Churkin said in an interview yesterday. “The Security Council is working still. When they put it together I would very much appreciate their presence.”

Diplomats have gathered around the table more than 6,000 times during the past 50 years, including U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson’s presentation in 1962 of evidence that Russia had put missiles in Cuba and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s case in 2003 that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

The UN is carrying out a $1.9 billion renovation of the headquarters complex on First Avenue in Manhattan. Its electrical, plumbing and security systems haven’t been updated since construction was completed in 1952. Only about 400 people are still working in the 39-story main building, out of more than 3,600 before the update work began. Workers have been moved to various buildings in Manhattan.

The Security Council will meet in a conference room in the basement for about two years, until the chamber’s renovation is completed. The entire project is scheduled to be finished in late 2013.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner at the United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 25, 2010 00:00 EDT

RIA: U.S. Senate to discuss arms treaty with Russia in April-May

The U.S. Senate plans to hold hearings on ratifying a new signed arms reduction deal with Russia in April-May, a leading U.S. senator has said.

A signed Russian-U.S. treaty has to be ratified by the two states' parliaments to go into effect.

"We intend to begin hearings between Easter [April 4] and Memorial Day [May 31] on the historical record of strategic arms control," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said in a statement.

START I, the cornerstone of a post-Cold War arms control setup, expired on December 5 2009.

Russia and the United States have been negotiating a strategic arms reduction pact since the two countries' presidents met in April last year, but the work on the document has dragged on, with U.S. plans for missile defense in Europe a particular sticking point.

U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the treaty on Wednesday morning with Kerry and Senator Richard Lugar, the senior Republican on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. The two senators will play the key role in the document's ratification.

"Once the treaty and its associated documents are completed and submitted to the Senate, Senator Lugar and I look forward to holding hearings and giving the treaty immediate and careful attention," Kerry said.

He said the goal is to ratify the treaty by the end of this year.

"I assured the president that we strongly support his efforts, and that if the final negotiations and all that follows go smoothly, we will work to ensure that the Senate can act on the treaty this year," the U.S. senator said.

A Kremlin source who had requested anonymity said on Wednesday the two countries had reached agreement on all the documents for a new strategic arms pact, which could be signed in Prague. White House officials indicated, however, that Moscow may have jumped the gun in making the announcement.

AFP said on Wednesday that the treaty might be signed in Prague, after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Czech Republic's neighbor Slovakia to take place on April 7.

"We may logically assume that it will happen this way," the agency quoted Vladimir Fedorov, citing a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Prague, as saying.

WASHINGTON, March 24 (RIA Novosti)