Turkish warplane shot down over Syria, pilots captured

reply to post by Xcathdra


I sincerely doubt that Turkey will try to annex any part of Syria. That sort of land grab is no longer considered acceptable. However, should Turkey move in with force against Assad and successfully depose him, I'd imagine that the new Syrian government would be closely aligned with Turkey. If he wants to make Turkey a major regional player, this is not a bad way to do it.

That said, I think that the Turks are more concerned with protecting their sovereign rights, and less about their long-term foreign policy goals. Establishing a pro-Istanbul government in Damascus probably falls under the heading of "side benefit" to the main goal of "stop Assad shooting at our planes, shelling our territory, and murdering his own people".

Turkey have bee the key ingredient in this from the start in my opinion. If the hawks in the Turkish goevrnment were looking for a way to engage in a full on ground assault then they are getting closer and closer to their goal.

I'm also of the opinion that Assad wouldnt stand a chance if Turkey weighed in.

reply to post by SLAYER69


I have said since shortly after Desert Storm that the worst mistake the USAF ever made was getting rid of the F-4G Wild Weasel, and the EF-111 Raven, without a replacement. Now we have USAF pilots flying Navy EA-6B Prowlers. The EA-6 is a good platform, but older than the F-4. The new E/A-18 Growler is going to be more capable than the Prowler, but in very limited numbers for the next few years. Every time they have tried to come up with a new jamming platform, it gets killed. Of course some of their ideas aren't the best, like the B-52 Stand Off Jammer idea.

As for the Turkish aircraft it was an RF-4, supposedly on a routine training mission. I personally suspect it was playing their version of the RC-135, and trying to find defenses, under cover of training.

Originally posted by Maxmars
I was scanning the Turkish media.... and the only reference to this incident appears to be here

www.birgun.net...

but I may not be on the right track...

(sorry about the discombobulated size on the screen capture)

I wonder if this news is "controlled" in Turkey....

Yes, it sure is and its controlled to an extent that would make any western news outlet seem like a blog site. Max, just scroll back to the initial reports on what Turkey was saying and you will begin to get the picture regarding false news streaming out of there. Syria has not apologized and to be blunt, ALL AA and S300's are manned by Russian troops, so its Russian lives that are on the line and Syrian soldiers are there as support.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman has revealed that the aircraft was downed by anti-aircraft fire and not by a radar-guided missile.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian air defenses had to react immediately to a Turkish jet flying at 100 meters altitude inside Syrian airspace in what was "a clear breach of Syrian sovereignty", Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said on Monday. "Syria reacted to the breach," he told a news conference about the incident on Friday. "We had to react immediately, even if the plane was Syrian we would have shot it down," he added. Makdissi said the jet -- a Turkish airforce F4 Phantom -- was shot down by anti-aircraft fire, not by a radar-guided missile. Despite the incident Syria remains committed to a "neighborly relationship" with Turkey, Makdissi said.

An interesting tidbit coming out of AlJazeera news...

Turkish and Syrian rhetoric takes flight

specifically -

Intriguingly, on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Erodgan to say that "Russia is deeply sorry for the incident".

Does this imply some fancy Russian air defence system was actually what did the damage to the Turkish plane, as many still believe?

Why would Russian media be reporting that Moscow has now halted delivery of S300 missiles to Damascus?

JP - Russian media reports: S-300 sale to Syria cancelled

Vedomosti - Russia source reporting the cancelation of the missiles - Home Page

US intel sources say that the RF-4 was probably shot down by a Syrian AAA battery, inside Syrian airspace. There is no word as to how the information was gathered, but intelligence sources told the Wall Street Journal that the Phantom was on a mission to probe defenses along the Syrian coast when it was probably gunned down by a shore based gun battery.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
US intel sources say that the RF-4 was probably shot down by a Syrian AAA battery, inside Syrian airspace. There is no word as to how the information was gathered, but intelligence sources told the Wall Street Journal that the Phantom was on a mission to probe defenses along the Syrian coast when it was probably gunned down by a shore based gun battery.

link to source?

reply to post by Xcathdra


Whoops, sorry bout that. That's what I get for trying to post stuff when I'm tired.

theaviationist.com...

reply to post by Ben81


The notion that the world we live in isn't entirely black and white has clearly come as quite the surprise to you. You see, sometimes in matters of war, national security and such there are things known as 'gray areas'. If you think any one country are the 'good guys' or the 'bad guys' you're flipping delusional.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Cool thank you...

Here is the letter Turkey sent to the UN with specifics -

Letter From Turkey to U.N. on Plane Shot Down by Syria

Lots of differing accounts for sure...