PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Russia - Military Strength vs Expenditure. How do they do it?
Old 2nd Feb 2022, 02:36
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Beamr
 
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Originally Posted by rattman
Russians have shot down 3 airliners and one of thier own AWACS. They are way ahead
I've counted five plus other attempted shoot downs.

OH-ALL finnish AERO JU-52, shot down by soviet DB-3's in 1940 en route from Tallinn to Helsinki and a soviet sub then "saved" the French diplomatic mail it was carrying. Seven PAX and two crew died.

Aeroflot 902, shot down in 1962 with a missile near soviet training area. All hands lost.

Korean 902, a B707 shot down by Soviet SU-15's in 1978. 107 survived.

korean 007, B747 shot down by soviey SU-15's in 1983. No survivors.

Malaysian flight 17, a B777 downed with a russian BUK in 2014. All perished.

And the russians did try to hit even more, eg the Finnair flight 915 that was shot at by Soviets in 1987. The word is that it was not an isolated incident. It seemed to be common practice for the russians to use overflying civilian aircrafts as practice targets with occasional mishaps (eg the aeroflo 902 mentioned above). Rather astonishing really.
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