The Russian Air Force has lost another one of its rare A-50 Radar planes.
Recent footage hitting the social media spectrum reveals a fiery aircraft assumed to be an A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning and control [AEW&C] plane, though the exact details are murky.
Whether it was Ukrainian forces or Russian air defenses that brought it down is yet to be determined.
BREAKING: Russian military plane, believed to be an A-50 surveillance plane, crashes in Krasnodar region. Ukraine claims responsibility pic.twitter.com/xLgusScc34
— BNO News (@BNONews) February 23, 2024
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.
The A-50s play important supporting roles in Russia’s two-year wider war on Ukraine. They help to detect incoming Ukrainian missile raids and also relay radio signals from front-line forces to their headquarters, which might be hundreds of miles away.
But that boldness backfired as the Ukrainian air force deployed the three Patriot batteries it got from Germany and the United States. A Patriot PAC-2 ranges 90 miles. Far enough to hit an A-50 flying over the Sea of Azov.
