What would Russia do if Britain shot down one of their bombers for straying in British airspace?

Answer 1

That would cause a large problem for Britain within the international community. You can't just shoot down a plane for straying in to your airspace.

Answer 2

All modern aircrafts of today are equipped with GPS devices and equipments. That includes the Russian planes too. So they know pretty well if they are within British airspace or not. Most probably, they want to provoke by going near but not crossing the British airspace. The RAF too knows that they cannot just shoot at any aircraft if it is beyond the British airspace. Even for a foreign aircraft that indeed strayed accidentally into the British airspace, the RAF cannot simply shoot at it. What is customary in such cases is for the RAF to communicate and warn the straying aircraft by tuning their radios into the standard distress frequencies and talk to the pilot of the other aircraft. Only after repeated unanswered warnings does the RAF is warranted to shoot. But in many cases, once receiving the warning radio signal, the straying aircraft simply turns back and fly away.

In the past, spy planes were shot down because they flew well deep within the enemy territory, and not just around the fringes of the enemy's airspace.

Answer 3

The RAF wouldn't be authorised to shoot down anything from anywhere unless it posed a credible threat to the British population. If this however could be proved, perhaps if the bomber attempted to fly into restricted airspace, for instance over a major population centre, and refused to obey commands to withdraw, and if demands for an explanation from Russian authorities were not met, then the bomber could be considered a valid target and shot down.

After that, it would be up to the British authorities to recover anything from the bomber which would be incriminating, then present this evidence to the Russian authorities to demand an explanation. The Russian authorities however may be unwilling to co-operate and could theoretically construe it as an act of war, which would rapidly escalate the situation. However, it is not in Russia's best interests to piss off the international community, and as such they would probably avoid doing anything more than the silly little Cold War games their bomber was playing in the most recent incident.

Answer 4

Difficult to answer,I think the Russians wouldn't every admit to straying into UK air space, they would retaliate in some way but only by doing the same thing to Brit military and under similar circumstances.
Under the present situation where any 'stray' aircraft is highly suspect, I would say the usual warnings would be issued and the aircraft, whatever it country it came from would be escorted away, if it refused to be escorted it would be shot down. Even the Russians would understand that.
Truth is we dont know.
I do know that I worked at a Nuclear plant in the UK , if any aircraft approached this 'forbidden' air space two very large fighter jets were there within a couple of minutes if the stray' aircraft had even hesitated to do as they were told then passenger aircraft or not, and regardless of Nationality, it would have been blown away!
I dont know how the 'stray' pilot would have felt but I was shi**ing a brick.

Answer 5

The same as the USA did when Russia shot down their spy plane or South Korean Airliner was shot down over Russia.Make a lot of noise then keep away in future.

Answer 6

There's really not much they can do, unless they think they can take on the free world, of which Russia is no longer a part of with their new dictator, Vladimir Putin !

The Russians now have a new best friend in the Chinese, however I understand they still patrol their common border because skirmishes have erupted between these new best friends. Even so, I doubt that the two of them would start anything, even though Vladimir is hell bent to be in the big guys club, again !

Answer 7

Does Britain even HAVE any more airspace? I figure a jet would fly over it in about 30 seconds. Hope they're quick on the trigger.

Answer 8

Maybe shoot down the next RAF plane that strays into their airspace or sink the next Royal Navy submarine that enters their waters

Answer 9

They'd most likely get the Polonium 210 out.

Answer 10

Probably have Putin make a personal visit to the Queen, and take his shirt off.