NATO to come to the rescue of Turkey in hopes of preventing full-fledged clash with Russia.

Covering his Brother.

NATO to come to the rescue of Turkey in hopes of preventing full-fledged clash with Russia. (JPost).

"It's a face-saving show of allied support for Turkey while trying to get them to behave more intelligently,"

NATO plans to send air defense support to Turkey partly to minimize the risk of Ankara shooting down another Russian warplane while assuaging its fears of a spillover from the conflict in Syria, senior alliance sources say.

The mission, expected to be approved by the Western defense alliance's council on Friday, has been under preparation for 10 months, long before the incident with Russia, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said it is not linked.

But NATO sources said the shooting down had galvanized allies to come forward with more support and tailor the assistance to help lower tensions between Moscow and Ankara by taking a role in managing Turkish airspace.

"NATO rules of engagement are more cautious than those of Turkey," said one NATO source.(Turkey not a member of NATO?)

NATO allies do not dispute Ankara's version of the facts, but they are keen to engage Russia in talks to avoid incidents that could flare from Moscow's aggressive patrolling of alliance air borders around Turkey, the Baltic states and the North Sea.

"NATO will increasingly take over management of Turkish airspace, so the Turks will have to be mindful of the fact that we will have eyes in the sky that can give a second opinion on any situation," the NATO source said.

"What would probably happen is that SACEUR will insist that if an airborne contact is being tracked through a NATO AWACS, i.e. non Turkish, any action the Turks chose to take be coordinated with NATO commanders and in effect NATO would have a red card," said Justin Bronk, a specialist in combat air power and technology at Britain's RUSI defense think-tank. Hmmmm......NATO still doesn't realise that for No Ottoman conqueror Turkey....they're the 'useful idiots'. Read the full story here.