‘If terrorists take a plane in Irish space, it’s game over’

Ireland is "Europe’s weakest link" in air defence cover because our Air Corps is so poorly equipped it cannot defend our airspace against hijackers taking over commercial aircraft or intrusions by foreign military aircraft.

One of the country’s leading security experts says the recent incursion by two Russian Tupulov TU-95 ‘Bear’ bombers highlights a potentially dangerous situation in the skies above us that we can cannot affect.

By Russian standards, the massive, propeller-driven TU-95 are old, having entered active service in 1956. However, they operate at up to 13.7km and can travel at 510 knots.

By contrast, the Air Corps is equipped with much slower planes. Its five Cessnas aircraft, with a combined age of more than 200 years, can only attain an altitude of 3km and a top speed of 161 knots.

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http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/mhkfkfsnausn/rss2/