Two days ago the Royal Air Force was obliged to scramble Typhoon fighters to intercept two Russian BEAR bombers near the coast of Cornwall. Yesterday, RT published video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry of what appears to be that intercept, though it could be video from a virtually identical incident on January 30. Russia has also recently violated Finnish, Estonian, and Swedish airspace and in 2013, the Russian Air Force even simulated bombing attacks on Sweden. However, the Russians can conduct these legal though obnoxious flights with impunity, secure in the knowledge that Western nations will not shoot down their aircraft.
Such confidence was not available to American aircrews during the Cold War. This was a period during which both sides in the Cold War not only flew reconnaissance missions against each other routinely, but also flew missions just to show the flag. This was an extraordinarily dangerous business.
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A declassified article from one of the National Security Agency’s in-house journals shows just how dangerous it was. Between 1950 and 1964, the Soviets shoot down thirteen American aircraft on such missions. (Cuba, North Korea, and China also shot down aircraft.) In fairness, some of these aircraft were shot down over, or had overflown, Soviet controlled territory, but others were not. The NSA article describes in detail the “COMINT reflections” of these incidents—the excruciating information available to the NSA as it listened in on the deaths of American flight crews.
Under the Putin regime, Russia has yet to gratuitously attack any Western military forces. However, Russia was also involved (at the least) in the shooting down of a civilian aircraft over Ukraine, an event about which egregious conspiracy theories were subsequently spread in Russia.
It may be galling that Moscow gets to shoot down any non-Russian aircraft that offends them and we do not. However, it is worth remembering that it was Moscow’s disregard for life and law that turned so much of the world against the Soviet regime and that is turning much of the world against Putin, as well. In the court of public opinion, having our hands tied behind our back by our own ethics may be a winning strategy.
Mark Stout is a Senior Editor at War on the Rocks. He is the Director of the MA Program in Global Security Studies and the Graduate Certificate Program in Intelligence at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Arts and Sciences in Washington, D.C.
Photo credit: RAF
davidbfpo 
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TheWalrus 
Mark,
In the latest flight by Russian TU-95 ‘Bear’ long-range aircraft, into the English Channel around Cornwall, one has to take some of the reporting with a large pinch of salt. RAF planes scramble notably. Really an emergency takeoff to intercept the Bears? The Bear is a slow-moving plane, it is tracked by civil if not military radar and by other means. Their route can be tracked and an intercept planned.
We now know in an earlier flight the French air force handed the bears over to the RAF.
The Guardian now reports that the Bears actually entered UK air space and overflew North Cornwall, which is based on two eyewitnesses. See: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/19/russian-bomber-flew-inland-cornwall-uk-airspace-witness?
Needless to say officialdom denies this.
It is important to distinguish between incursions into national air space, rather than air defence identification zones (ADIZ) they are NOT national territory.
Yes the Bears are reported to have turned over their transponders, so I understand making air traffic control’s job harder.
Let us not forgot intelligence-gathering flights around the periphery of Russia continue. Maybe the Russians regard these are testing them.
It was only in October 2014 a USAF ELINT plane in the Baltic encountered a Russian fighter and flew over Sweden – uninvited – to get away.
A useful report on these flights is: http://www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org/medialibrary/2014/11/09/6375e3da/Dangerous%20Brinkmanship.pdf
We also have at least two recent reports of a mystery submarine sighting near the Firth of Clyde, on Scotland’s west coast; where the UK’s national nuclear deterrent submarines are based. Much embarassment for the UK as it has no maritime patrol aircraft and had to borrow Canadian, French and US aircraft to help.
In 2014 the Australian Lowy Institute’s e-newsletter reported on the ‘Cold War’ era incursions into Cginese, Russian and Vietnamese waters by Australia’s conventional submarines.
There is nothing new, unusual, or controversial about these type of reconnaissance flights — especially those by Russians flying in TU-95 Bears, except to recognize the long life of those aircraft. I have pictures of a TU-95 over flying our Task Group in the Pacific in 1966.
It says something positive about the ability of the Russian Air Force that they have maintained those particular aircraft in good condition for so long a period of time.
Although it wasn’t US policy to shoot down Soviet aircraft even if they entered our or our Allies air space as the Soviets would attempt to do if one entered their airspace. However, on the other hand, the Soviets weren’t routinely over flying the US with U-2 or SR-70 type aircraft.
This country, and the West in general, tends to ignore its record of intrusions into other lands when commenting in a negative tone about the similar counter actions of others.
A ground to air missile would be a Russian play, just after it enters Russian air space again. Don’t be a fool and sign the missile, in fact make a Russian emblem on it. I lost a friend while on active duty to this Russian trick. They calculated his air speed with a strike so as to land inside Russian air space as a violation of agreement, when he was scrambled to challenge their entry into Germany. Jeff was a great person and an issue was never made of his taken life.