Hopefully this is just the start of a new way to handling these situations. A number of other NATO countries in the area from Finland to Bulgaria could do the same.
Hopefully this is just the start of a new way to handling these situations. A number of other NATO countries in the area from Finland to Bulgaria could do the same.
We haven’t and we won’t, unless the “poor lost plane” would be heading directly towards some critical infrastructure. Then it would be blown out of the sky.
Russia has been playing this stupid game of theirs for years, their plane violates our airspace and we send our F/18’s to signal them to GTFO.
They play the same game with on-off GPS-interference, which is annoying but has very little real effect.
By responding to these petty provocations with lethal force would only result in a diplomatic crisis and more importantly, it would reveal the true effectiveness of our defensive capabilities. And Russia would love to learn that, for a low-low price of one Sukhoi fighter/pilot. Yeah, we’re not falling for that.