Ukraine shoots down $483 million Russian spy plane

[Boats]

Ukraine shoots down $483 million Russian spy plane
By: Joe Barnes of The Telegraph & Stuff News - 01-15-24 ~ 07:56 pm
Re: https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/3...sian-spy-plane

Photo link: https://www.stuff.co.nz/media/images...lution=620x350
A Russian spy plane was shot down late last week by Ukrainian forces, and a second aircraft was badly damaged.
TELEGRAM / SUPPLIED

Ukrainian forces have destroyed a NZ$483 million Russian spy plane and badly damaged a second in a significant blow to Moscow’s air power.

The Russian Beriev A-50 long-range surveillance aircraft was shot down as it patrolled the Sea of Azov region late last week, while the Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post was forced into an emergency landing, Ukrainian sources said.

“The A-50 was shot down and it exploded,” Major General Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told the Financial Times on Monday.

“The Il-22 was badly damaged but, unfortunately for us, it managed to make an emergency landing in Anapa [a Russian town on the Black Sea coast],” he added.

General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, had earlier said both aircraft had been “destroyed” in response to weekend reports of the strikes.

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He shared a clip from a radar that appeared to show two planes disappearing over the water.

“I am grateful to the air force for the perfectly planned and executed operation in the Azov Sea region,” the army chief added.

Moscow has not commented on the claims.

But the loss of the A-50 was confirmed by Fighterbomber, a prominent Russian military blogger with links to the country’s air force.

The pro-war Telegram channel shared an image on the social media platform of what it said was the damaged Il-22’s wing and rear after a strike.

‘The wreck is beyond repair’
“But as you can see, the wreck is beyond repair,” said Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian air force.

The Soviet-designed A-50, known as the “flying radar” and codenamed “Mainstay” by Nato, is an early-warning and control system used by Moscow to hunt down Ukrainian jets and missiles from up to 644 kilometres away.

The four-engined aircraft, which carries a crew of 15, can also use its rotating radar to detect ground targets for up to 299 kilometres.

British intelligence officials late last year said Moscow was likely upgrading its fleet in anticipation for the arrivals of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Any losses of the $483 million aircraft are seen as “significant because Russia has a limited number of them”, according to Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Russia was understood to have nine of the spy planes, but one was damaged in March last year when Ukrainian saboteurs attacked it with drones while it was parked at an airfield in Machulishchi, Belarus.

“There’s just eight A-50s in good condition,” Maj Gen Budanov said.

Some Russian military bloggers suggested the A-50 could have been downed by the Kremlin’s own air defences in a “friendly fire” incident, which have become increasingly common.

But since the arrival of the US-made Patriot air defence system into Ukraine last year, Kyiv has carried out a series of successful strikes as part of a campaign to deny Russian aircraft access to its skies.

Prof Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow for airpower and technology at the Royal United Services Institute, said the damage to the Il-22 was “consistent” with a strike from a “Patriot PAC-2 GEM”.

He added it was likely the system had to be dragged close to the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region to carry out the strike at a range of around 145 kilometres.

Surface-to-air strikes
Ukrainian forces similarly shot down four Russian SU-34 strike jets and one SU-30 fighter in a series of surface-to-air strikes in December.

The loss of the A-50 will impact Moscow’s ability to coordinate military efforts “around the clock”, Maj Gen Budsanov said.

The aircraft was brought down shortly after take-off near Kyrylivka, a coastal town on the northern Azov coast in the occupied region of Zaporizhzhia, at around 9.10pm local time on Sunday, Ukrainian media reported, citing defence sources.

Around the same time, the Il-22 was also struck and damaged, reportedly killing two crew members, causing it to limp back to a nearby air base in Russia.

Jimmy Rushton, an independent analyst in Kyiv, said: “The Ukrainian air force is currently largely incapable of challenging the Russians in the area, so they’ve resorted to the creative use of long-range Western-provided ground-based surface-to-air missile systems [such as the Patriot] placed in areas the Russians aren’t expecting them to ambush Russian air assets.”

- The Telegraph
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Personal note: Ukrainians are getting in their licks. They will be a force to deal with now and in the future.

Russia is taking many hits on their relic's and so-called state of the art military of late (I'm sure more to come)!
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Boats