LONDON, October 31. /TASS/. RAF Typhoon fighters have been scrambled from the Lossiemouth air base in Scotland to monitor long-range Russian bombers, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday.

"Typhoon fighters from RAF Lossiemouth were scrambled today as a precautionary measure against a potential incursion into UK area of interest by one or more unidentified aircraft. At no time was there a threat to UK airspace and the Typhoons subsequently recovered," they said.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said that two strategic bombers Tupolev-160 were flying a routine mission in international air space over the Barents and Norwegian seas. The Russian Defense Ministry pointed out that Russia’s long-range aircraft make regular flights over the international waters of the Arctic, the North Atlantic, the Black and Caspian seas and the Pacific Ocean. Russia’s Aerospace Force planes painstakingly comply with the rules of using international air space and avoid violating other countries’ national borders.

The Tupolev-160 (NATO’s reporting name Blackjack, Russia’s unofficial reporting name White Swan) is a Soviet-designed supersonic strategic missile-carrying bomber with variable shape wings. Alongside the Tupolev-95MS, it constitutes the backbone of the Russian Aerospace Force’s fleet of long-range aircraft.

Its task is to hit crucial targets in remote areas with nuclear and conventional weapons. The Tupolev-160 is the largest-ever military supersonic plane and the heaviest combat plane in the world.