THIS is what it is like to be intercepted by RAF jets.
Typhoons armed with air-to-air missiles roared up to our wing tips in drills to prepare for a Russian incursion.
The Sun joined a Nato show of force ahead of a 31-leader summit this week to cement more support for Ukraine.
We were on board a transport jet as fighters from eight allies blasted into the sky on a voyage across Europe.
Top Guns scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth as part of the UK’s Quick Reaction Alert force that regularly head off Putin’s Bear bombers thundering out of the Arctic.
The multi-role RAF combat jets flanked the Airbus from just 50 yards away – close enough for us to read the pilots’ names stencilled below their cockpits.
They were joined by F-16s from the Netherlands, Poland and Romania, Finnish F-18 Hornets, Swedish Gripens and a pair of German Luftwaffe Eurofighters.
The jets flew over and under the Airbus A330 and bared their bellies bristling with missiles.
In a scene that echoed the classic film Top Gun, a Polish pilot took his hands off the joystick to snap a picture of our Airbus with his smartphone.
Major General Harold van Pee, boss of Nato’s Combined Air Operations Centre, said they launch around 30 missions a week to shadow Russian aircraft.
He told The Sun: “It shows the Russians we are ready, whatever they do.”
Some of the jets took the chance to refuel on Nato’s new Airbus A330 Refueller.
Maj Gen von Pee added: “It is for deterrence, it is a show of Nato’s unity and it is for safety.
“Russian aircraft often do not have or do not use their transponders to broadcast their positions. They do not respond to air traffic controllers.”
The exercise came as RAF Typhoons based in Estonia shadowed Vladimir Putin’s Doomsday jet through the Baltic.
The flying command and control centre was built to let Putin give nuclear orders in the event of World War Three.
A pair of Typhoon FGR4s flanked the Tu-214 as it flew to and from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, which borders Lithuania.
The RAF jets have been based in Estonia under Nato’s “enhanced vigilance” mission after Putin‘s Ukraine invasion.
Maj Gen van Pee said Russian pilots in southern Europe and the Black Sea were far more aggressive than their comrades in the north.
Last year a Russian Su-27 fighter jet fired an air-to-air missile at an RAF spy plane, which the Pentagon called a “near shoot down”.
Later, a second Su-27 dumped fuel on a US MQ9 surveillance drone causing it to crash in the Black Sea.
During the Nato summit on Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelensky said it would be “absurd” if Ukraine was not offered membership to the international alliance.
The wartime President rocked the first day of the alliance’s annual summit with furious claims that there was “no readiness” for his country to become a member.
Rishi Sunak today insisted he wanted to see “demonstrable progress” on a pathway for Ukraine to join the security pact.
But other premiers including Joe Biden have appeared more hesitant and hinted that Ukrainian membership would be far into the future.
President Zelensky is jetting in for the meet but ahead of his arrival tweeted a blistering attack saying Ukraine “deserves respect”.
Zelensky said: “It’s unprecedented and absurd when the timeframe is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership.
“While at the same time vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine.
“It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance.
“This means that a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine’s membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia. And for Russia, this means motivation to continue its terror.”
Discussions about Ukraine’s membership are expected to dominate the two-day summit, including under what conditions and when they could join.
