The initial report was published by The Daily Star and The Sunday Times. It claimed that an "unidentified source" in the British military told the media that Royal Air Force's Tornado GR4 involved in Operation Shader in Iraq against Islamic State from now on are going to be armed with ASRAAM (AIM-132) short range air-to-air heat-seeking missiles to be prepared to "to shoot down Vladimir Putin's jets," The Sunday Times reports.

So far, the RAF jets took off armed with "500lb satellite-guided bombs only," but as the source in British Defense Ministry put it, "in the last week the situation has changed. We need to respond accordingly."

British pilots have been allegedly instructed to avoid contact with Russian aircraft.