Incredibly, the Russian air force has lost another one of its rare Beriev A-50U/M Mainstay radar early-warning planes. Reportedly to Ukrainian action.

Incredibly, the Russian air force has lost another one of its rare Beriev A-50M/U Mainstay radar early-warning planes. Video that circulated online on Friday reportedly depicts the A-50’s burning wreckage in Krasnodar Krai, in Russia just east of the Sea of Azov.

The location of the crash, at least 120 miles from the front line in southern Ukraine, could indicate the four-engine, 15-person radar plane either suffered a mechanical failure—or took a hit while operating closer to the front and tried to make it back to its base in Krasnodar before exploding.

For what it’s worth, the Ukrainian air force claimed it shot down the A-50 with assistance from the intelligence directorate in Kyiv.

Either way, it’s a devastating blow for the battered Russian air force. The air arm has lost, mostly to Ukrainian long-range surface-to-air missiles—American-made Patriot PAC-2s, in particular—nine of its best planes in just a month. Including an A-50 that the Ukrainians hit over the Sea of Azov in January.

  • theodewere@kbin.social
    86·
    8 months ago

    As much as the airframe loss hurts, the loss of 15 experienced airmen might hurt worse. Russian air ops “are constrained by the availability of pilots with sufficient experience to carry out key missions,” analysts Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds wrote in a recent study for the Royal United Services Institute in London.

    maybe the pilot situation is causing the high rate of airframe losses recently

    • nexusband@lemmy.worldEnglish
      461·
      8 months ago

      It’s definitely not helping - especially since Russian planes are quite difficult to fly. Most of them have zero automation

      • chuck@lemmy.caEnglish
        101·
        8 months ago

        That’s sad considering their shuttle could basically land itself. I guess those engineers were on the Ukrainian side

        • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.spaceEnglish
          26·
          8 months ago

          To paraphrase Maciej Cegłowski on the Space Shuttle, when the Russians steal your design and then add safety features, then you know you fucked up.

        • nexusband@lemmy.worldEnglish
          16·
          8 months ago

          I mean, Russia was pretty shit overall and they’ve been trying to change history books and inventions for something in russia. Computers famously where made in Hungary, Rockets and basically anyhting that properly flew in ukraine…and so on.