Russia's ambassador to the UK has been summoned to the Foreign Office for a diplomatic dressing down after British war planes were scrambled to intercept two bombers capable of carrying nuclear missiles. The planes were 'escorted' by RAF jets 'throughout the time they were in the UK area of interest' - coming as close as 25 miles from the UK. A Foreign Office spokesperson said while the planes stopped short of entering British airspace, the incident was part of an 'increasing pattern of out of area operations by Russian aircraft'. Picture of the action: Spoiler The Typhoons were dispatched from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland and RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. They were so close to the Russian planes – roughly 1,000ft away – that they could signal to the pilots. A QRA is launched to intercept aircraft that cannot be identified by any other means. In this case, the Russians would either not have filed a flight plan, not transmitted a recognisable surveillance radar code, or failed to talk to air traffic control. Elizabeth Quintana, of defence think-tank the Royal United Services Institute, said: 'This case is very unusual. Normally Russian Bears come past Norway and down the North Sea. It could have been used to probe the RAF speed of reaction south.' "If we knew the aircraft did have cruise missiles on it and was ready to use them, it wouldn't last very long"
