Expert Explains Importance Of Destroying Russian A-50 Planes
- 15.01.2024, 14:30
The Russian Federation has only nine of them, but not all of them are functioning.
The AFU Air Force warriors managed to destroy the Russian aircraft A-50 long-range radar detection and control aircraft, capable of reconnaissance and targeting for strikes. In total, the aggressor country may have 9 A-50s, but not all of them are combat capable.
Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military-political expert of the Ukrainian "Information Resistance" group, told RBC-Ukraine in detail about why it is important to destroy the A-50 and what is the uniqueness of this operation.
On What Kind of Aircraft It Is and How Many of Such Aircraft Russia Has
The A-50 is a long-range radar surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. As the expert explained, such planes are used to conduct reconnaissance activities in the airspace. A-50s are also used for target designation of tactical aviation and can even be used to increase the characteristics of air defence capability, increasing the ability to target, fix, observe, as well as destroy targets at a distance.
"Russia has only 9 such planes. But 3 of them are actually unfit: one of them is undergoing modernisation, which it has not yet undergone completely, the others are actually unfit because they are not repairable," Kovalenko said.
Thus, as the expert notes, Russia has 6 such combat-ready aircraft, but there are still questions even regarding them.
"One of the A-50 planes was hit by a drone in Belarus, it was evacuated from the RB. Then the fuselage of the aircraft was not hit directly, but its "Bumblebee" reconnaissance system. And today Russia is unlikely to have the ability to restore such complex systems promptly. And so far there has been no information that it is out of repair," Kovalenko reminds and adds that up to 5 A-50 planes were mostly registered in the airspace on duty.
The Importance of Destroying the A-50
The expert explains that in general Russia can not produce such aircraft now.
"It itself is very expensive, its price is almost $400 million. But taking into account that A-50s are not produced now and each of them is unique make this aircraft even more expensive for Russians," Kovalenko emphasises.
According to him, such a loss for the Russian Federation means that it has significantly less ability to conduct reconnaissance activities in Ukrainian airspace.
"Not only will they have less information about the presence of Ukrainian tactical aviation and not only in the airspace, but they will not be able to reorient their tactical aircraft and air defence assets," Kovalenko says.
The expert calls the destroying of the A-50 as a rather painful, serious, expensive and reputational loss for the aggressor country.
"For together with the A-50, the Il-22 was damaged. And in fact it is a unique case in the world history of wars and conflicts, when simultaneously two aircraft of such level, such functionality are destroyed or damaged. This is a unique case. It has never happened before in history," Kovalenko emphasises.
The Second Loss for Russia
As the Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security points out, this is the second loss or damage of the A-50. As we have already pointed out, before that such an aircraft was disabled by Belarusian partisans at the airfield in Machulishchy.
At the same time, such an aircraft was shot down yesterday. In particular, speaking to the publication, expert Kovalenko also agreed that there have been no cases of the very shooting down of the Russian A-50 so far. This means that it happened for the first time.
In turn, the Centre for Strategic Communications notes that the A-50 is a very complex and specific machinery. And, according to the Centre, there are up to 20 of them in the arsenal of the Russian Federation.
They also note that the Il-22M11 - a protected air control centre, which operated together with the A-50 during the enemy air attacks against Ukraine, is also the second loss by Russia during the war. Since the first such aircraft was shot down by Wagner PMC fighters during the Yevgeny Prigozhin mutiny last summer.
As a result, it should be noted that the destruction and disabling of these aircraft is a great success for the Ukrainian Defence Forces, which will facilitate the fight against enemy aggression in the air.