RAF and USAF in high-level war games off Edinburgh coast after Putin warns NATO

putin/typhoon
-Credit: (Image: Getty Images/PA)


A "large scale" military exercise including the RAF and US Air Force is underway with activity spotted on the east coast of Scotland near Edinburgh in recent days.

Exercise Cobra Warrior saw up to 90 military aircraft including elite Typhoon fighter jets, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft involved in war games in the skies above East Lothian on Tuesday and above the North Sea.

Top brass warned the large force exercise involves aircraft engaging in "high-energy combat manoeuvres" as local plane spotters noticed a hive of activity in the skies above.

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US Air Force Chinook helicopters and a Boeing KC Stratotanker, a military refuelling aircraft, were also seen south east of Aberdeen above the North Sea.

Details disclosed by the Civil Aviation Authority revealed the aircraft involved are conducting air-to-air combat radar profiles, supersonic flight, radar and communications jamming and air combat serials.

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The exercise began on September 16 and is set to conclude on October 4. Such training is aptly timed following a statement from Russian President Vladimir Putin warning the lifting of restrictions on long range missiles in Kyiv would be seen as a "direct participation" of Nato countries in the war in Ukraine.

"It would substantially change the very essence, the nature of the conflict," the Kremlin leader continued before adding the US and European states would be "fighting with Russia."

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The comments came following a clear message from Putin to the West regarding the use of long-range missiles being used to strike Russian territory. He claimed it would require data from the western satellites and only servicemen from Nato member states would be able to "input flight missions into these missile systems."

More information on Exercise Cobra Warrior can be found online here.