British Pilots Authorized to Shoot Down Russian Planes over Syria

An article by Romil Patel in the Oct. 11 International Business Times reports that British “Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots have been given the go-ahead to shoot down Russian military jets when flying missions over Syria and Iraq, if they are endangered by them.” Patel cites an article in the Sunday Times of London, which quotes an unnamed source from the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) describing the new order of battle:

“The first thing a British pilot will do is to try to avoid a situation where an air-to-air attack is likely to occur… you avoid an area if there is Russian activity. But if a pilot is fired on or believes he is about to be fired on, he can defend himself. We now have a situation where a single pilot, irrespective of nationality, can have a strategic impact on future events” [emphasis added].

To facilitate such a potential incident, RAF Tornado aircraft will now be armed with heat-seeking air-to-air missiles, capable of flying at Mach-3. This, Patel writes, would “allow RAF pilots to shoot down enemy aircraft without being targeted themselves.”

A second British military source told the Sunday Times: “We’re taking a step closer to war. It will only take one plane to be shot down in an air-to-air battle and the whole landscape will change.”