MILITARY commanders have deployed long range radar aircraft on a top secret mission to protect Britain's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, sources confirmed last night.
The two RAF AWACS airborne early warning planes, codenamed “Nato 30” and “Nato 31”, were launched last week from RAF Waddington to ensure a radar “ring of steel” around the 60,000 tonne carrier and its escorts. The news emerges as Royal Naval commanders braced themselves for more harassment by Vladimir Putin today after Russia deployed fighter aircraft and bombers in Syria to coincide with the Carrier Strike Group’’s transit through the Eastern Mediterranean. A hastily-arranged maritime exercise to “defend” the Syrian port in Syria has seen MiG-31K interceptor fighter jets, armed with the Kinzhal ship-killing missile, sent to the Khmeimim airbase in Syria.