Two RAF fighter pilots have revealed the tense moment when they discovered that a suspicious unidentified aircraft over the Middle East was one of Russia’s biggest military jets. The Typhoon aces tracked the transport aircraft while on a sortie to identify any insurgent activity near a US military base in Jordan which had been hit with a drone launched by a militia group.
They monitored the hulking Ilyushin Il-76, given the codename ‘Candid’ by NATO, to keep it away from the base before identifying another identical armoured Russian jet in a ‘game changer.’. Speaking about the incident afterwards, one of the pilots, named as Flt Lt Josh, says: ‘We don’t want the Russian military aircraft to get too close as it could get very dangerous, there is risk of escalation.’.
The Typhoons were then alerted to a second ‘masked’ aircraft, which also turned out to be a Candid flying to Russian bases in Syria. One of the pilots, who is not identified in a new documentary about the RAF fighter pilots and service personnel, responds over the radio: ‘It’s a game changer.’.
The Typhoons from 11 Squadron were launched from busy RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus following the drone strike on the base close to the Syrian border in January 2024. Three US soldiers were killed and more than 40 other service members injured following the uncrewed aerial system attack.
The pilots ‘sanitised’ by removing jewellery and other identifying items as well as packing pistols before flying out to identify any insurgent activity around the base. They had been in the country as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the US and coalition mission against ISIS.
Flt Lt Josh, a junior pilot flying as wingman on his first mission over Syria, said: ‘Flying a fighter jet, a Typhoon, on my own over the top of a warzone is nerve-wracking.’. As the pair flew near the American base, coalition analysts spotted the suspicious aircraft which had been masking their identities in contravention of international rules.
Although it is not stated in the footage, Russian aircraft which do not have flight plans or transmit transponder codes have in the past been judged a potential risk to civilian flights by NATO. A detailed log of the jets’ movements was passed on to British military intelligence by the pilots, whose squadron is based at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and also protects UK airspace.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. Vladimir Putin’s forces appear to have been relocating his troops in large numbers from the country, where Bashar Al-Assad’s regime was toppled by insurgents in December.
The presence of two of the huge jets — which are around 47m (154ft) long and have a crew of six or seven — at the same time was considered unusual by the pilots. The incident is revealed in Top Guns: Inside the RAF on the same day that Moscow sent Tu-95MS nuclear-capable strategic bombers close to Ukraine’s borders with NATO, causing alarm in Poland.
The military alliance scrambled fighter jets to defend against a possible attack amid fears Russia was dropping missiles near the border. Poland’s armed forces operation command headquarters said: ‘Attention, due to the activity of long-range aviation of Russia, striking targets located, in particular, in the west of Ukraine, military aviation has begun to operate in the airspace of Poland.’.
Ground based air defences and radar reconnaissance systems were also ‘put on alert’ in the early hours of this morning. At least two Russian bombers were reported to have taken off from Olenya air base in the Arctic. They appear to have been part of the Kremlin’s ramped-up attacks on Ukraine as negotiations for a peace deal continue.
*Top Guns: Inside the RAF airs tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm. Do you have a story you would like to share? Contact josh.layton@metro.co.uk. Arrow MORE: Nato scrambles warplanes after Putin uses nuclear-capable strategic bombers. Arrow MORE: Two RAF jets warned ‘you will be destroyed’ by Putin’s forces in tense encounter.
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