Elena Gold
Media analyst 19h

How significant is the loss of an A-50 spy plane for Russia's air force?

Yesterday, Ukraine managed to hit 2 rare Russian planes: A-50 long-range
radar detection and control aircraft (worth $330 million), and the Il-22
enemy air control center (worth $200 million).

The A-50 spy plane was downed and ended on the bottom of the Azov Sea,
with all its crew.

A50 spy plane.

The Azov Sea’s depth is only 15 meters, so the Russians will be able to
find the remains soon.

The Il-22 enemy air control center reportedly managed to land after
suffering the hit. Ukraine released the audio of a conversation, where
the aircraft crew demands rescuers to meet them on landing, saying they
had wounded on board.

Damaged Il-22 managed to return to the air field in Russia. Most likely,
it won’t be possible to repair the plane.

In June 2023, during Prigozhin’s mutiny, Wagner downed another Il-22
with 10 crew on board. It was a big loss for the Russian air forces.

Russia is trying to downplay the scale of the damage they suffered
through downing of the A50. Although they lost their best pilots and
engineers there. The best pilots, on whose training Russia spent
millions of budget rubles and many years. There will be no one to
replace them.

Crew of A50. (Archive.)

The Russian Ministry of Defense simply keeps quiet about it, and
Kremlin’s mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov has stated that he has no knowledge
of such event, when he was asked about it.

Rumors are, Putin was furious about it and yelled at Shoigu about the
loss of the plane.

The planes themselves are irreplaceable — literally. Russia has only 8
of A-50 left, but they may be in various levels of combat readiness.
Usually, half of such planes are under maintenance, due to high tech
components used (and the parts are now under western sanctions).

Russia is unable to make more of such planes at the present time.

“A50 plane, which was peacefully guiding missiles and bombs at Ukrainian
cities, was treacherously shot down by the enemy.” Rest in pieces.

Typically, A-50 long-range radar reconnaissance aircraft fly at great
distances from combat zones. Their main purpose is deep reconnaissance
and support in targeting.

Valery Romanenko from the National Aviation University in Kyiv stated
that the Ukrainian attack will force the Russian army to move the A-50
away from the front line by about 100 km.

This will give Ukraine "tactical advantages" to carry out attacks on
Crimea and targets in other occupied regions, and will also help cover
ground operations and launch cruise missiles.

One of those who planned missile attacks on Ukraine, deputy commander of
long-range aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Lieutenant General
Oleg Pchela, was reportedly liquidated with the downed A-50.

Colonel Markus Reisner, Austrian military historian, called the downing
of A50 “an impressive success” — not only on the battlefield, but also
in the information space. He compared the attack on the plane to the
destruction of the Russian submarine in Crimea.

Ukraine once again demonstrated its ability to effectively use the
limited means that it has at its disposal. Ukrainians keep in secret
what weapons were used to hit the important Russian planes.

Russian military correspondents are in shock about it and also can’t
figure out how the Ukrainians did it. Did they manage to increase the
distance of how far “Patriots” can hit? Or have they already got F-16’s
and air-to-air missiles?

In any case, yesterday Russia skipped on their usual midnight ritual of
firing drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainians could have a peaceful sleep with no air raid alerts.

Follow me for more updates!

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1 of 7 answers
52 comments from
Ilona Chase
and more

What source?

Defense of Ukraine
@DefenceU
The Ukrainian Air Forces destroyed the enemy A-50 long-range radar
detection and control aircraft, worth $330 million, and the Il-22 enemy
air control center.
Great job, warriors!
Ukraine will win!

Andrej Mednansky
· 17h
dear Elena- that photo on the net of the damaged Il-22 id old from april
2022. Now shot Il-22 was lost on radar so probably it could lie on the
bottom of the sea.

Elena Gold
· 14h
Yes, I know it was an archive photo of Il-22. There is no confirmation
on it so far. Chatter is, it could have landed.

Michał Stępień
· 14h
that is another victory of sovietland. alongside lowering of soviet male
population, soviets decided also to lower number of soviet avacs.

Elena Gold
· 18h
Archive video of the crew of A50.

Wiktor Kukułski
· 15h
I have doubts Ukraine can shot it, because range of Patriot PAC-2 is
150–160 km, and the point where planes were shot down is 250 km from
nearest point in unoccupied Ukrainian territory. The point where planes
were is far outside the circle, if coordinates in the OP article are
correct.
it could be viable, if mobile launchers moved to occupied territory to
make a shot
or somebody on the enemy territory is playing on Ukraine side

Elena Gold
· 14h
Ukrainians confirmed shooting A50.

Wiktor Kukułski
· 10h
if this is true, why Russia pushing version about friendly fire? they
afraid of spreading panic that Ukraine have ability to shoot planes on
such long range, so they’d better take blame on themselves ?

Alexei Sinitsa
· 10h
Good question. Friendly fire incident is something, that discipline and
being organised, in theory, can prevent from repeating.

Enemy having means to strike your rear lines is not something you can
prevent just with discipline.

If you try to cheer up surviving air crews, so they continue to go up
there, which of the two shootdown scenarios are you more likely to promote?

Wiktor Kukułski
· 9h
one possible explanation is that they claimed that airspace over Azov
sea is “safe”, and plane crews may refuse to fly there, if it is
reachable for Ukrainian missiles

Alexei Sinitsa
· 8h
Yes, you get the hint.

“Friendly fire incident” could be less demoralising explanation, in this
situation…

On 1/16/24 15:59, a425couple wrote:
> Elena Gold
> Media analyst 19h
>
> How significant is the loss of an A-50 spy plane for Russia's air force?
>
> Yesterday, Ukraine managed to hit 2 rare Russian planes: A-50 long-range
> radar detection and control aircraft (worth $330 million), and the Il-22
> enemy air control center (worth $200 million).
>
from
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/26735

Kyiv Confirms Downing of Two Russian Command Planes in Disastrous Day
for Kremlin Air Force
Sources in Ukrainian intel confirmed to Kyiv Post that two aircraft had
been shot down, but did not provide further details of what weapons were
responsible.

by Chris York, Maryna Shashkova | January 15, 2024, 9:01 am | Comments (3)
Kyiv Confirms Downing of Two Russian Command Planes in Disastrous Day
for Kremlin Air Force
File photo of a Russian Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control
aircraft. PHOTO: Wikipedia
RELATED TOPICS
Patriot NASAMS NATO

LATEST: Double Shootdown of Russian Spy and Command Aircraft – Expensive
Losses but Still Plenty of Questions

Ukraine has said two Russian airborne command aircraft were shot down on
Sunday evening in what amounts to one of the worst days for Moscow’s air
force since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Ukrainian media on Sunday evening reported an A-50 radar early-warning
plane was downed on Sunday evening shortly after take-off over the Sea
of Azov in the Kyrylivka area of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine.

A Russian Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post was also damaged in an
attack and forced to make an emergency landing in Anapa on the Russian
side of the Sea of Azov.

Sources in Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) confirmed to
Kyiv Post that the two aircraft had been hit, saying “we confirm the
fact” but added: “We do not comment on the means used.”

HUR did not provide further details and it is not known what weapons
downed the two planes.

Later on Monday, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny, said in a
post on social media: "soldiers of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of
Ukraine" destroyed the plane, adding: "Thanks to the Air Force for the
excellently planned and conducted operation in Azov region! Glory to
Ukraine!"

He also released radar footage of the planes' flight paths.

According to RBC-Ukraine, the A-50 radar early-warning plane disappeared
from radars and stopped responding to radio calls, with the pilot of a
Russian Su-30 fighter jet confirming the aircraft had been hit.

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Just a few minutes earlier, a Russian Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command
post was damaged with RBC posting what it claimed was an SOS call made
by the crew of the aircraft, in which they said: “Urgently requesting
ambulance and fire crew.”

SEE ALSO: A Quick Guide to Russia’s Downed A-50 and Ilyushin Il-22M
Command Planes

According to open-source data, Russia had just nine A50 planes in
service, and 30 IL-22Ms.

File photo of Russsian Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post. PHOTO:
Wikicommons.

The loss of two command planes in a single day would mark the worst 24
hours for Russia’s air force since the launch of the full-scale invasion
of Ukraine.

The previous record would be a day last month when Ukraine downed three
Russian supersonic Su-34 strike aircraft.

As in Sunday’s attacks, the weapon system used were not disclosed but
speculation suggested the possible use of the Patriot anti-aircraft
missile system.

How might the planes have been downed on Sunday evening?

Immediately after reports of the downing of the two aircraft were
received milbloggers and mainstream media began to speculate on what
happened.

The question on everyone’s keyboard was how Ukrainian air defense had
been able to hit targets well beyond the range of their known positions.

One theory voiced by Forbes and others was that, because in recent weeks
Ukraine had been able to step up its use of electronic warfare to impede
Russian air and missile activity, the planes had inadvertently strayed
outside of their usual “safe zones” bringing them into range.

Another suggestion was that an intrepid Ukraine pilot or pilots had
managed to stage a “sneaky” hit and run attack using air-to-air missiles
before returning to safety over Ukrainian held territory.

A third suggestion made on a Ukrainian Telegram channel was that the
IL-22 had actually been hit by its own air defense assets deployed to
protect the Kerch bridge that links Crimea to mainland Russia.

One theory that has yet to be voiced, as the reports said the A-50 had
been hit “shortly after take-off,” was that one of Ukraine’s special
forces teams or a partisan group had got close enough to use a
man-portable air defense (MANPAD) missile or other weapon to hit it.

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CONTACT US
Chris York
Chris York
Chris is Kyiv Post’s Head of News and has over a decade of experience as
a former senior editor and reporter at HuffPost UK. He has an MA in
Conflict, Development, and Security and after a stint learning Russian,
is now trying to forget it and learn Ukrainian instead.
Maryna Shashkova
Maryna Shashkova
Ukrainian journalist. Senior Corespondent at Kyiv Post. I have been
working as a journalist for almost 10 years. I write about Ukrainian
politics and social issues.
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