Despite what Cameron said the TU-95s entered the London FIR, British Controlled Airspace, off the west coast of Cornwall chased by two typhoons. They crossed Civil Upper Air Routes being used by civil airliners. They were in Class C airspace! (Never even asked for a clearance
Eventually the 'Bears' left British airspace and entered Irish airspace. I really cannot see how this can be acceptable.
Ummm, no. This was NOT "controlled airspace". They were operating in
an FIR.
Definition of FIR:
A
flight information region (
FIR) is a specified region of
airspace in which a
flight information service and an
alerting service (ALRS) are provided. It is the largest regular division of airspace in use in the world today. FIRs have existed since 1947 at least. Oceanic airspace is divided into Oceanic Information Regions and delegated to a controlling authority bordering that region.
FIRs, particularly Oceanic FIRs are in international airspace and are NOT in territorial airspace. The US military and indeed the militaries of almost every NATO nation routinely operate around Russian airspace the way these Russian aircraft operate around European airspace. Not only is this legal, but it is perfectly "acceptable" and routine. The Soviets did this for decades. When they became Russian again the practice stopped for the simple reason that they did not have the money. When their economy picked up again they started those flights again. But with the ruble recently tanking and their economy struggling again, those flights may (or may not) stop. Nothing sinister here.