Two Russian bombers were intercepted by Dutch F-16 planes last night. The Russians had flown into Dutch airspace; it is not clear why the Russian planes were there. The F-16s were ordered to monitor the movements of the Bear T-95 planes. Before they entered Dutch airspace, the Russians were escorted by the Norwegian and Danish air forces.
The F-16s followed the Russian planes until the British air force took over above the British Isles.
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During the Cold War, there were numerous intrusions into Dutch airspace by Russian bomber aicraft. These come from the Russian Arctic or Kola peninsula and penetrate deep into the North Sea area. The purpose of these attacks is to find out the detection range and coverage of the Dutch air defence radar systems and the reaction time of the QRA F-16s from Leeuwarden AB. There are lots of newly built high tower buildings at the north of the Netherlands which create shadows or black spot areas in the radar coverage. The Russians try to find out these spots as flying under the radar routes for their air-launched cruise missile systems. Secondly, it is good to know when these weapons must be launched before the bombers have the risk of being intercepted. For the Russians it good to know that there is merely one QRA base left (Leeuwarden) since the Cold War and that there are still two radar stations at Nieuw-Milligen and Wier.
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