The F-35Bs launched from HMS Queen Elizabeth and escorted a Russian Il-38 flying near the UK Service Strike Group.

A Russian Il-38 maritime patrol plane got here inside proximity of the UK Service Strike Group working off the coast of northern Norway. F-35B Lightning jets had been scrambled from the deck of the HMS Queen Elizabeth to hitch RoNAF (Royal Norwegian Air Power) F-35As and shadow the Russian Naval Aviation plane.

The UK CSG’s official X account shared a photograph of an F-35B belonging to the 617 Sqn from RAF Marham escorting the Il-38 four-engined turboprop. Contemplating that the picture was in all probability taken from the plane provider, it’s protected to imagine the Russian MPA flew fairly near the Royal Navy’s flagship.

UK F-35Bs launched from the deck of @HMSQNLZ and flew alongside @Forsvaret_No Norwegian F-35As to escort a Russian Maritime Patrol Plane because it flew in proximity to UK Service Strike Group.#UKCSG23 #JEFtogether pic.twitter.com/HeJlQS6ahU

— UK Service Strike Group (@COMUKCSG) October 6, 2023

HMSQE left Portsmouth on Sept. 8 and is at the moment working within the Arctic area.

Navigating the Fjords with our Norwegian allies 🇳🇴 #JEFtogether @Forsvaret_No #UKCSG23 within the Excessive North ❄️ pic.twitter.com/zINWRr6LsX

— UK Service Strike Group (@COMUKCSG) October 4, 2023

The UK plane provider’s Air Group took half in Ex. Cobra Warrior 23-2, RAF’s largest train, that concerned greater than 50 plane from Canada, U.S., Italy, Norway, Australia and the UK working collectively to assist a fictional nation in battle to regain sovereign territory. Particularly, the F-35s had been tasked with SEAD (suppression of enemy air defenses) missions.

The F-35s of a number of air forces perform QRA (Fast Response Alert) duties each at residence and overseas, underneath NATO command, to assist the alliance’s air policing missions. For example, the Italian F-35As are at the moment deployed to Poland, to assist BAP (Baltic Air Policing): the Italian Lightings have recently intercepted two Russian Naval Aviation Su-30s off Kaliningrad. Nevertheless, to our information, this is likely one of the first (if not the very first) time an F-35B is scrambled from the flight deck of a provider to hold out an intercept.

David Cenciotti is a journalist based mostly in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and browse navy aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and lots of others, masking aviation, protection, warfare, business, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with completely different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Power, a non-public pilot and a graduate in Pc Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.