Quote Originally Posted by Sir C View Post
Christ, a Sukhoi-24? Saved them the bother of scrapping the poor old thing, I suppose.
Sure, but the principle was the same. The Russians were pushing their luck by encroaching on Turkish airspace, the Turks weren't having it, shot the bugger down and the Russians backed off. This is their gameplan - it's based on the idea that the West won't react. When it does, they'll back down.