By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
A Turkish F-16 shot down a Russian SU-24 yesterday. This is a very ominous set of events. Turkey is claiming that they warned the Russian pilot ten times in five minutes to leave Turkish air space.
Russia will not let this action go unanswered.
The atmosphere is very tense in the air in and around Syria. Fourteen air forces fly in Syrian skies.
Fourteen! That fact alone is cause for worry - mistakes are made all the time.
The US, Britain, Canada, France, Australia, Russia, Israel, China, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey and of course Syria all fly around in Syria. They are bound to bounce up against one another and it is inevitable that some country, at some time, will fly out of bounds.
But Russia and Turkey have been testing one another for over a decade. This is not the first skirmish between them that involves planes.
The first incident took place in 2012. A Turkish F-4 reconnaissance plane was shot down. Then a year and a half later Turkey shot down a Syrian MIG and a helicopter. The Turks have repeatedly said that the Russians are violating their airspace. On October 3rd it was reported that a MIG locked onto a Turkish jet.
Russia is now expanding its plane arsenal. They are doubling their number of planes over the next few weeks.
As I said - this was not the first and it will certainly not be the last time there is an incident in the skies of Syria, and it is not the first and not the time there will be aerial conflict between Russia and Turkey.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=halpern%2C+micah
To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
No comments:
Post a Comment