Following last week’s Turkish military shoot-down of a Su-24 Russian bomber over Syrian airspace, Russia announced its intention to begin providing fighter escorts to their future bombing runs in the area to avoid future incidents.
Today, advanced Russian Su-34 fighter jets, armed with air-to-air missiles, arrived in Syria to take part in the escort missions, which Russian Air Force officials described as “self-defense” operations.
With the Russian air war exclusively targeting Islamist militant factions with no planes of their own, the planes are clearly meant more or less exclusively as a response to Turkey’s shootdown, and to dissuade Turkish F-16s from taking any more shots at their planes, reflecting how serious tensions remain along that frontier.
Russia has also deployed air defense systems in northwestern Syria since the incident. Turkish officials have insisted they will not apologize for shooting down the Russian plane, and angrily condemned Russia for imposing economic sanctions on them over the attack.
Turkey should be brought up on war crimes for allowing terrorists to use their country as a sanctuary.
That would be for allowing the US to use Turkish territory from which to run an insurgency. The Saudis are giving the money, but they have no expertise. They are not giving the money to Turkey. They are giving it through the CIA. This isn't the first time, so it should be no surprise.
Should that be before or after Putin is charged with the same offence for supporting "rebels" in Ukraine and threatening war if the Ukrainian authorities try to recover control of their territories?
These Russian fighter planes are more than a match for any f16 s that Turkey or any western country has any where in the middle east . They are rated as the fastest and the most capable fighter plane in the world .
At these extreme levels of performance, there is no decisive advantage to be gained. It is more like Spitfires vs Me-109's in the Battle of Britain. Tactics and situations will matter far more than the airplanes themselves, given these airplanes.
Already bogged down in Ukraine and Syria, why would Putin be fool enough to want to get bogged in Turkey as well?
why do you reject every one of my comments you ahole
[moderator’s note: Actually, I don’t think ANY of your comments have been rejected — they get automatically held for moderation, in a process that I’ve explained to you and told you how to correct. But if you want to see what having every one of your comments rejected, forever, looks like, I can demonstrate that for you if you like. Signal “yes” by calling me a name again – TLK]
These Russian planes have Israeli electronics and they can shoot enemy planes down before they can be seen
Israeli electronics came from the US.
Can't all modern fighter aircraft do that?
Jason, thanks for your great work!
Indeed, Su-34 are tactical bombers (or fighter-bombers if you want), just like the Su-24 but more modern.
They are already stationed in Syria. They are not "pure" air superiority fighters of the kind used for escort missions, like the Su-30. A few of these are also on the spot (Israeli F-15s just made a U-turn when finding them over the Mediterranean a few weeks ago), but the Russians will certainly bring more.
What Reuters is saying is that Russians fighter-bombers will now be carrying air-to-air missiles (and hence less air-to-ground payload), which was not previously the case as it was pointless.
The weight of air to air missiles is slight. They often go on pylons that cannot support heavier ordnance, like wingtips. The reduction in payload would not be important.
Ancillary to this: how are the Russians getting their planes to Syria? They can't overfly Turkey or Bulgaria/Greece, so they would seem to have to fly via the Caspian, Iran, Iraq and then arrive at the "wrong" end of Syria. That's like flying from NY to Washington via Chicago and it reveals the extreme vulnerability of the Russian air base.
Russia became overly cocky and broke from normal air warfare protocalls, in that state vs state those bombers would of had air protection.
Russia thinking they wete merely fighting chicken or ground huggers was too busy enjoying turkey shoots.
In the movies and books “Godfather” the head don had his “Luca Brasi” attack and killer dog, and in this case the US “Don” has found theirs in Turkey.
Yet again, Putin shoots himself in the foot! These aircraft are clearly intended to intimidate Turkey (and NATO). He's made exactly the same mistake as he made in Ukraine and when he plunged into the fighting in Syria. Instead of sitting tight and awaiting developments, he has reacted agressively and shot himself in the foot. Since inclusion in the US coalition brought him no advantage and exclusion from it caused him no disadvantage, one has to suspect that he hoped that as a US "ally" in Syria, he would be rewarded by being allowed to keep his ill-gotten gains in Ukraine. By confronting Turkey, rather than sweeping the whole thing under the carpet, he has destroyed his chances in Ukraine. Once again, Putin reveals his total lack of political savvy.
Your disdain for Putin is clouding what's left of your reasoning abilities again. Russia just had one of its bombers shot down. Fighter escorts for bombers are not a new idea. This is common practice, and has been so for many decades. Only the truly demented (i.e. you, Michael) would see this as an attempt to intimidate.
You wrote previously, that Putin had capitulated to Turkey's shoot down of the Russian bomber. Now, you're attempting to assert that Putin has confronted Turkey concerning this incident. The tit for tat argumentation that took place immediately following the shoot down is basic political sparring – not a confrontation.
The reality of the situation is that Putin hasn't yet confronted Turkey on a scale commensurate with the damage Turkey has wrought. When Turkish planes start falling out of the sky, it will be correct to declare that Turkey has been confronted by Putin / Russia. Even then, such a confrontation would be purely defensive. I don't expect Turkey to get another free shot at Russian aircraft.
Moral fabric of society — How the rich play us for a sucker
For the top 25% of society owns 75% of the wealth, the most intelligent one-forth owns three-fourths of everything with material value, and how they do it is really quite simple.
For the moral fabric of society is the compassion and pity we have for the impoverished lower half. A kindness which is made valid to ourselves and others by our charity given in a way that produces a grateful response. People giving with no hope of a personal gain, the result being that those less fortunate are so humbled by the charity as to admit that they could not save themselves, that charity was in no way a right that they deserved.
So, what High Society has done is to put a blackout on the word "gratitude" and a total elimination of the need to in anyway feel grateful. Forced tipping for example, the fake morality that we must give a waitress an amount equal to 15% of the bill. No need for the waitress to in anyway feel grateful as she had a right to the tip, a just payment for a job well done.
For gifts to those in your income class, this is mutual gratification as you expect something equal in return. And gifts to those in a higher class to gain favor, this is called worship.
For a giving action that produces a grateful response, this is the perfection that is achieved by everyone being born with a different level of intelligence. Ask anyone working in human resources and they will tell you, people who are under or over qualified for a job, hire them to do it and most miserable will they be.
Does everyone understand that Russia's presence in Syria is to draw a line in the sand against the completion of the PNAC agenda. They seem to know that if Syria falls then Iran is next. Now it seems like it's just a question of whether the US quits or the Russians blink, and how long it's going to take for either? Thank the gods for MAD because it really does look like Putin is not a blinker!
Correct. Very astute observation, as well.