Growing up in Australia during the 1970′s and 80′s I was always intrigued in hearing about the “Red Menace” of Communism. I was a kid and a teenager during the Cold War but felt far removed from any threat living in the southern part of Australia. The Vietnam War was long over, Europe was far away and China was not the superpower it is today.
In reality I read years later that Soviet submarines were often detected in our waters, plus Soviet ”fishing trawlers” were out there that were actually spy ships. In return Australian submarines would spy on the fleets of the Soviet and Chinese Navy in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and South China Sea from 1978 to 1992 (these secret missions came to an end when one of our Oberon class submarines specially equipped with intelligence gathering equipment got caught in a fishing net and had to surface in the middle of a fleet to be cut free!). Australia was most likely also targeted by Soviet nuclear missiles as we had numerous US spy bases located within our borders.
HMAS Onslow – Royal Australian Navy Oberon Class Submarine
The one thing that always fascinated me during that period was seeing photos in books and magazines of relatively tiny North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and US fighter aircraft intercepting massive Soviet bombers and reconnaissance aircraft over the North Sea, the Baltic, the Pacific Ocean or the Bering Sea near Alaska. Back then NATO included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK, USA and West Germany (it has greatly expanded today to include former Eastern Bloc enemies).
Cold War Europe
From the 1950′s right through to the fall of the USSR and Communism in Eastern Europe in 1991 the Soviets sent aircraft to probe and spy on the air defences of NATO nations and the US Pacific naval fleet. This lead to NATO forces building high-speed aircraft (Mach 2+) to intercept and escort the Soviet aircraft out of their airspace in as “friendly” a manner as possible (classic interceptors included the English Electric Lightning, Convair F-106 Delta Dart, Grumman F-14 Tomcat, Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the Panavia Tornado F.3). Sometimes these interceptions were done at incredibly close ranges so the pilots could check each other out and take intelligence photos. This must have led to some very hair-raising and amusing moments on both sides – I remember reading stories of NATO pilots holding up symbols of the “Free West” to their Soviet counterparts such as Playboy magazines!
RAF Lightning F.3
These Soviet incursion flights were all in preparation for a possible war that hung over the world following World War Two. Of course as history has shown it was a Cold War and luckily never went “hot”.
So Communism fell and the Cold War ended. This spelt the end of these incursion flights, but then around 15 years later the economic fortunes of Russia began to rise on the back of natural resources, along with a reestablished influence over the world. This resurgence suddenly lead to the appearance of the Russian aircraft on incursion flights once again! Starting in around 2006 Russian spy and reconnaissance aircraft started to probe the air defences of the UK and Northern Europe. They say history tends to repeat itself and one thing is certain the Russian bear is back!
The interesting thing with these intercepts is that throughout the entire period from the 1950′s to today one predominate aircraft has been involved in most of them. The Tupolev Tu-95 Bear a huge 4 turbo prop engined bomber that first flew in 1952 and is still in service with the Russian Air Force today.
Tupolev Tu-95 Bear
Following are a collection of photos of interceptions of Soviet and Russian aircraft over the past 50 years by NATO and US aircraft.
1960′s
Clockwise left to right: Tupolev Tu-95 Bear and USMC McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, RAF Lightings & Myasishchev M-4 Bison, Tu-95 & RAF Lightning, Tu-94 & US Navy Phantoms over USS Kitty Hawk, Myasishchev M-4 Bison & RAF Lightning, Tu-95 & US NavyVought F-8 Crusader, US Navy F-4′s & Tupolev Tu-16 Badger over USS Kitty Hawk, US Navy McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk & Beriev BE-6 Madge and USAF Convair F-102 Delta Dagger & Tu-95
1970′s
Clockwise left to right: Tupolev Tu-95 Bear & US Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom, US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat & Tupolev Tu-16 Badger, Royal Navy F-4 & Tu-95, US Navy F-14′s & Tu-95, US Navy Vought F-8 Crusader & Tu-95, US Navy F-4′s & Tu-95, US Navy F-14 & Tu-95, US Navy F-4′s & Tu-95, RAF F-4 & Tu-95, US Navy F-4′s & Tu-95 and US Navy F-14 & Tu-95
Clockwise left to right: Tupolev Tu-95 Bear & RAF Lightning, US Navy McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk & Tupolev Tu-16 Badger, Tu-16 & US Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, TU-95 & USAF F-4, USAF Convair F-102 Delta Daggers & Tu-95, Tu-95 & USAF F-4′s, Norwegian Lockheed F-104 Starfighter & Tu-16, US Navy Grumman A-6 Intruder & Tu-16 and US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat & Tu-95
Clockwise left to right: Tupolev Tu-126 Moss & US Navy A-4 Skyhawk, Tupolev Tu-95 Bear & US Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, USAF Convair F-106 Delta Dart & Tu-95, Tu-95 & Luftwaffe F-4, USMC McDonnell Douglas AV-8A Harrier & Tu-95, RAF Lightning & Tu-95, US Navy F-4 & Ilyushin Il-38 May and US Navy Grumman A-6 Intruder & Tu-95
1980′s
Clockwise left to right: Tupolev Tu-95 Bear & US Navy Vought A-7 Corsair II, Tu-95 & Dutch General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Tu-95 & USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, Tu-95 & US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat, Tu-95 & USAF Convair F-106 Delta Dart, Tu-95 & US Navy F-14, Tu-95 & US Navy F-14 and Canadian McDonnell Douglas CF-101 Voodoo & Tu-95
Clockwise left to right: Tupolev Tu-95 Bear & US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcats, Ilyushin Il-38 May & US Navy F-14, USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle & Tu-95, US Navy McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets & Tu-95, Il-38 May, US Navy Grumman A-6 Intruder & F/A-18, TU-95 & USAF Convar F-106 Delta Dart, Tu-95 & USAF F-106 and Ilyushin Il-76 & US Navy F-14
Clockwise left to right: US Army Bell AH-1 Cobra & Czech Mil Mi-24 Hind, US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat & Antonov An-12 Cub, Tupolev Tu-16 Badger & US Navy F-14, Tu-16 & USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, Tu-16 & USMC McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, US Navy F-14 & Tu-95, Tu-95 & USAF F-4 and South Korean F-4 & Ilyushin Il-38 May (not NATO but looks cool)
Clockwise left to right: Tupolev Tu-95 Bear’s & US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcats, Tu-95 & USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagles, Tu-95 & US Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion, RAF Vickers VC-10 & Tu-95, Myasishchev M-4 Bison & Norwegian General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Tupolev Tu-16 Badger & Italian Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Tu-16 & & USAF F-15, Tu-16 & Italian F-104, US Navy F-14 & Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire, Norwegian F-16 & Tu-22M and US Navy F-14 & Tu-95
Clockwise left to right: US Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat & Ilyushin Il-38 May, Tupolev Tu-16 Badgers & US Navy F-14, Tupolev Tu-95 Bear & US Navy F-14, Tu-95, US Navy F-14 & USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, Norwegian General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon & Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire, US Navy F-14 & Tu-95, Tu-22M & US Navy F-14, Antonov An-22 Cock & Italian Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and RAF Sepecat Jaguar & Il-38
2000′s
The bear is back!
Clockwise left to right: Canadian McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet & Tupolev Tu-95 Bear, Canadian F/A-18 & Tu-95, USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle & Tu-95, USAF Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor & Tu-95, USAF F-22 & Tu-95, USAF F-15 & Tu-95, Norwegian General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon & Tu-95 and Tu-95 & Norwegian F-16
Clockwise left to right: Tupolev Tu-95 Bear & RAF Eurofighter Typhoon, Lufwaffe Typhoon & Antonov An-72, USAF Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor & Tu-95, RAF Panavia Tornado F.3, Eurofighter & Tu-95, USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle & Tu-95, RAF Tornado & Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack, Tu-95 & RAF Tornado, Tu-95 & RAF Tornados, Tu-95 & Netherlands General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and Tu-95 & US Navy McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet
Clockwise left to right: Antonov Il-76 Mainstay & Luftwaffe Eurofighter Typhoon, French Dassault-Breguet Mirage 2000 & Ilyushin Il-38 May, Il-38, French Mirage 2000 & Swedish Jas-39 Gripen, Tu-95 & French Mirage 2000, Tu-95 & RAF Eurofighter, Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack & Norwegian General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Tu-95 & Norwegian F-16, RAF Eurofighter & Tu-95 and RAF Tornado & Tu-160
As for me, well I have only ever seen one TU-95 Bear. That was at the Russian Air Force Museum in Monino near Moscow in 2007. Would love to see one in the air some day!
The Tu-95 at Monino
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Hi Deano,
Have just found this blog, it’s great, with really interesting information.
Do you happen to have the photo (or know where it is) of the Bear with the crewman in the rear holding up a can of Coke (I think)? I remember seeing it in one of my fathers Aircraft Illustrated magazines from either 70′s or 80′s. Was a great photo.
Anyway keep up the great work.
Rich
(Sydney)
Hi Rich, thanks for taking a look at my blog. I dont have that photo sorry, but I am sure it would be out there somewhere!
Regards
Deano