Russia's Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-31, Tu-95MS bomber confront NATO's F-16 Fighting Falcon, watch

A video of two Russian military planes - a Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-31 intercepted/fighter and a Tupolev Tu-95MS Bear-H strategic bomber - coming in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation with a NATO F-16 Fighting Falcon has gone viral. The video purportedly uploaded by a former Russian Air Force fighter pilot shows the pair of Tu-95MS and MiG-31 flying, and the F-16 ahead of the Russian fighter.

Shot by the MiG-31 pilot, the video reveals that the Tu-95MS is on the left of the combat aircraft while the F-16 is to the right of the Russian fighter jet. But it is not clear which NATO country scrambled the F-16 jet to intercept the Tu-95MS and the MiG-31 escorting it.

The MiG-31 is seen coming parallel to the F-16 with the Russian pilot repeatedly saluting and giving a thumbs-up to NATO fighter pilot. After a few second the NATO F-16 veers off to the right and flies away from the two Russian planes.

However, the date and time of the incident are not clear.

While the Tu-95MS has four engines and is a long-range, turboprop, strategic bomber as well as missile carrier, the MiG-31 Foxhound is a long-range supersonic interceptor jet.

The MiG-31 is a twin-seater and is the first fighter from the former Soviet Union's stable to have true look-down and shoot-down capability. MiG-31 can track 10 and destroy four targets from long distances. The jet can take down targets flying between 50 metres to 28,000 metres. It usually carries four long-range Vympel R-33E air-to-air missiles to shoot the enemy at extremely long ranges while four short-range R-60MK missiles and two Bisnovat R-40TD1 medium-range missiles are also part of its arsenal.

Some MiG-31 variants can also carry the AA-12 Adder missile as well as AS-17 Krypton anti-radiation missile (ARM). One six-barrel Ghs-6-23M 30mm internal cannon with 800 rounds of ammunition is also fitted in the jet.

Carrying stand-off cruise missiles, the Tu-95MS can fly for well over 15 hours at a stretch with the record being a 17-hour patrol flight over the Aleutian Islands in May 2011. The bomber has a crew of seven, including a pilot and a co-pilot.

Some versions of Tu-95MS can carry six 2,500km-range Kh-15 air-launched cruise missiles while others are armed with six Raduga Kh-55 (AS-15) subsonic air-launched cruise missiles. The Tu-95MS-16 variant has 16 Kh-55 missiles in its arsenal while a slight modification can allow the bomber to take off with eight Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles or 14 Kh-65 anti-ship missiles. The plane has two Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-23 twin-barrelled, 23mm automatic cannons at the rear.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the F-16 Fighting Falcon is one of the most famous combat aircraft and there are over 4,500 in service with the air forces of different countries. The single-seat, single-engine F-16 has nine hardpoints for weapons. The armament may include air-to-air missiles like AIM-9 Sidewinder, Raytheon AMRAAM, Raytheon Sparrow, MBDA Skyflash, ASRAAM, and the MBDA R550 Magic 2. The jet can also missiles to hit targets on ground and sea. These include Maverick, HARM and Shrike for ground-based target and Harpoon and Kongsberg Penguin for anti-ship operations.