Ukraine Shoots Down Second Highly Advanced Russian A-50 Spy Plane

[Kennah]

Source: Newsweek

The Ukrainian Air Force said its fighters on Friday shot down a Russian A-50 military spy plane, the second of the prized aircraft that Kyiv has claimed to destroy this year.

The Beriev A-50 is an airborne early warning and control jet used by Russia to help monitor Ukraine's air defenses. The aircraft typically fly with a crew of up to 15 personnel and are estimated to cost over $300 million to produce.

According to Russian and Ukrainian reports, an A-50 was brought down over the Sea of Azov late Friday. Kyiv officials took credit for the jet's destruction, although some Russian military bloggers said it was brought down by "friendly fire."

Ukraine's Air Force commander, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, announced the downing of the A-50 in a post to Telegram, and thanked Kyiv's military intelligence "and all those who ensured the result." Oleksandr Syrsky, the recently appointed commander in chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said on Facebook that the "Destruction of Russian aircraft and enemies is a great honor."

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-shoots-down-second-highly-advanced-russian-50-spy-plane-1872986

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$330 million A-50 AWAC aircraft!

Other reports say this happened over Krasnodar Krai, so inside Russia.

If the Ukrainians are using missiles, then I say it's time to sink the Kerch Bridge.

Sink! That! Bridge! Sink! That! Bridge! Sink! That! Bridge!

[Wicked Blue]

1. Slava Ukraina!

[getagrip_already]

2. Only 6 were thought to be on active status

Of those, only 3 or 4 were observed to be in use.

Scratch one more.

[Irish_Dem]

3. $350 million dollar aircraft. Ouch.

Generals don't like to see that kind of money crash and burn.

[Igel]

8. In the US, perhaps.

Because Congress.

Russian generals don't like to see that kind of thing happen because Putin might do a bad on them and it constrains them in what they can use. They don't care about the money, they care about not doing good enough or avoiding bad things sufficiently so as to avoid sudden death syndrome by window.

[Irish_Dem]

17. It also cuts into the corrupt Russian generals' profit margin?

[Wonder Why]

15. Usually people "accidentally" fall out of Russian windows. In this case, the whole plane did?

[Irish_Dem]

19. Yes Russian Air Force general tells Putin: plane fell out of window.

[orangecrush]

4. Nice Shot, Man

We know all about blowing Russians and their stooges out of the sky.

?si=rdm4s2jurUMr2cVm

[Marcus IM]

5. Ugh. Ugly video.

Lots of shots of small villages/villagers who did nothing to harm America getting bombed and napalmed. With a rocking' soundtrack.

[orangecrush]

11. The Bear isn't at the door

He was in our capital on January 6th, and is going full bore to destroy the democracy we live in, silence/kill the opposition (that's us).

Fuck Russia, fuck Russia's allies and enablers.

[Marcus IM]

12. So I guess small villages/villagers who did nothing to harm America getting bombed and napalmed didn't work.

Maybe some F 4's with napalm were needed on J6?

[orangecrush]

13. Please reveal your source

For the intelligence on these innocent villages.

I'm pretty sure the Air Force didn't just say "let's go expend a bunch of munitions on non combatants".

You could identify the targets in the video just by looking?

Pretty impressive.

[Marcus IM]

18. Source for what?

In 1995 Vietnam released its official estimate of the number of people killed during the Vietnam War: as many as 2,000,000 civilians on both sides and some 1,100,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War

You're not asking for sources that F 4's were not used on J6, are you??

[orangecrush]

21. Civilians

Were used as support for transport on the Ho Chi Minh trail, as workers rebuilding and manufacturing munitions in the North, etc.

How Many civilians has Russia killed in Ukraine so far?

[Marcus IM]

22. What does 2,000,000 Vietnamese civilian deaths have to do with it?

Last I checked, the US were the invaders of a foreign nation in an undeclared war. Lots of civilians died.

Is that the comparison you're making over Russia's invasion of Ukraine in an undeclared war?

[blue-wave]

24. I believe the point of his comment

Is that this is a thread about Ukraine and the illegal genocidal war Putin and his Kremlin are waging against Ukraine. If you want to distract and talk about a whole different war, start a different thread. And 2,000,000 civilians dead? How many were the Vietcong responsible for?

[Marcus IM]

26. OK. The point of my comment was that the video is ugly.

In that the footage is of war machines primarily directed at people that had done nothing to the USA.

Now, should I start another thread, or are you going to post another response to this distraction?

Have a good one.

[blue-wave]

38. Still wondering how many of the 2,000,000

Civilian dead the Vietcong were responsible for.

Have a good one.

[orangecrush]

29. Sorry, I'm playing hardball

Not tennis.

[oldsoftie]

34. We never invaded N Vietnam. The South wanted our help; we didnt "invade'

As for the death count, you're taking the word of the Vietnamese. Its doubtful more civilians were killed than combatants. Unless many were BOTH; which wasnt uncommon.
Russia is TRYING to kill civilians every day & that death toll is still lower than UKR military losses.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

36. The south Vietnamese government was a puppet government.

Your grasp of history is tenuous and outdated neo-con nonsense.

[oldsoftie]

42. So the South actually WANTED to become communist & didnt want our help. OK

[Aristus]

44. Yes.

The South Vietnamese government was dominated by a small minority of wealthy, Catholic, French-speaking Vietnamese who oppressed the majority of poor Buddhists who made up the bulk of the population of South Vietnam. The vast majority of people in both the North and the South supported Ho Chi Minh and wanted him to be the leader of a unified Vietnam. The CIA cancelled the scheduled free elections of 1954 because they knew Ho Chi Minh would win.

We weren't there at the request of the poor Buddhist Vietnamese, but the wealthy, Westernized fat cats who ran the South Vietnamese government. Also, any notion that we were there to fight for democracy is idiotic. South Vietnam at the time was a religiously and economically oppressive military dictatorship.

One of the U.S.'s biggest blunders during the Cold War is that we always seemed to choose the wrong allies. We should have sided with Ho Chi Minh (who was a huge admirer of the United States) and his bid for Vietnamese sovereignty. Just like we should have sided with the people of Iran over the tyrannical monster, the Shah. But any country that deviated even slightly from Abrahamic monotheism and/or market consumerism got our cold shoulder.

[oldsoftie]

45. Years earlier I would agree; once again the French are to blame!

We shouldve insisted that Vietnam be granted independent after fighting the Japanese in WW2, but nooo, we had to "give" the country back to France who had controlled it before the war. There probably never would've been a communist problem if they'd just been given independence.

[Aristus]

47. On that, we agree.

n/t

[oldsoftie]

33. The VC used civilians back then much like Hamas does today.

And while the US forces certainly DID do some things wrong more than once it wasnt the standard policy. We actually held BACK by a large margin. One of the reasons we didnt prevail.
But Vietnam soon knew we weren't the enemy they thought; War with China came quickly & suddenly they WANTED us around. Still do

[oldsoftie]

32. F4 was my favorite jet till the A10 came on scene.

2 of my friend's fathers flew the F-4

[orangecrush]

41. They are

One mean looking aircraft!

[NJCher]

6. a shot in the arm

at a difficult time.

Damn impressive.

[Chainfire]

7. You wonder if, as when the airplane was plummeting into the sea, if the crew members were

thankful that it was "friendly fire" that was about to convert them into fish food? But, hey, if Russia wants to destroy their own aircraft, so be it. I strongly suspect that the fire was very hostile and that the source was in Ukraine.

[tanyev]

9. Somebody used to bullseye womp rats in their T-16s back home.

[Aristus]

10. Sharp shooting.

I hear they're not much bigger than two meters.

[Hieronymus Phact]

43. Shame on you both, and Luke too!

The Wamp Rat at 2 meters (6.5 feet), best thought of as a rare, native, Tatooine Manatee, and is now endangered because of the thoughtless targeting practices of young, immature, testosterone fueled, farm boys!

They just target them, and then fly on by in their loud, modified, T-16s. Leaving the Wamp-Calvs to fend for themselves. Not even caring that a Wamp Rat of that size could have fed a family of 6 Sand People for a month and provided valuable fuel and materials for their very survival!

The Sand People use every part of the Wamp Rat, leaving nothing to waste, while the farm boys just fly away leaving the carcass to rot in the suns.

Shame on you all!

[TomSlick]

14. Friendly fire? That's your story?

It's a big plane with a huge radar disk on top. Someone shot it down accidentally? Even Russian pilots or AA operators ain't that bad at their job.

[Layzeebeaver]

27. Regardless of the root cause...

1) Top notch Ukrainian pilots shooting it down, or
2) Idiot Russians downing their own asset, or
3) A high value target of opportunity for any mediocre air crew

Any one of these is an acceptable and good result.

[Hassler]

16. Too bad it wasn't the one Vlad was in yesterday.

[Kennah]

25. That will be a glorious day that Ukraine blows up a Blackjack bomber

[LiberalFighter]

20. If it was by friendly fire.... How would Russian citizens and especially military grunts take it?

Hmmm

[COL Mustard]

23. The Russians keep shooting down their own planes.

Maybe they're trying to keep the crews from defecting?

[Emrys]

28. I guess that put a dent in any plans Vlad might have had for taking a pot shot at the leaders gathering in Kyiv

Happy anniversary, Vlad!

The remains of ten of the A-50 crew have been found at the crash site, with sources listing them as five majors, three captains, an ensign and a lieutenant. Radio intercepts indicate that the A-50 was in the process of co-ordinating an attack by an Su-35 and three Su34s near Avdiivka, which attempt then had to be abandoned.

Meanwhile, you could say "BREAKING!"

Link to tweet

Euan MacDonald
@Euan_MacDonald

Meanwhile, in Moscow, one of the hangars of the Sukhoi aircraft design plant is on fire. Sukhoi makes/made the “Su-” and “Be-” brands of aircraft, like the Su-34 and the Beriev (Be) A-50.

[Twitter video]

Aww, that might make figuring out a replacement for the A-50 by fixing any of the disabled ones they have in reserve a bit trickier.

[orangecrush]

40. Careless Russian smokers

[SWBTATTReg]

30. Too bad. The A-50 AWAC aircraft are not just the only significant loss, the trained personnel operating the craft

would be almost impossible to replace.

[oldsoftie]

31. I think that leaves them with 5. nt

[jmowreader]

35. What an A-50 is

The United States has an aircraft called the E-3 Sentry. It’s a Boeing 707 with a huge rotating radar antenna on top of it. We’ve had really good results out of it.

The Soviets found out about it - how could they not, it was in the papers - and made their own. The Soviets decided to use the Ilyushin-76 military transport - which is the Soviet answer to our C-141 - as the airplane for theirs. This makes a lot of sense because anyone who can fly or work on an Il-76 can do the same on an A-50 and all the Il-76 parts fit on it.

While losing one of them - they only ever had 40 to start out with and not many of those will even run - is terrible for the Russians, I can’t imagine that shooting one down is that much of a problem. They’re huge and slow. A surface-to-air missile system would kill it pretty easily.

[Red Mountain]

37. Easy if you can get close enough

It's a matter of some debate what exactly the Ukrainians used that had the range to hit this one.

That works to their advantage. To keep other copies safe the Russians are going to have to pull them back.....and that limits their role in terms of battlefield management.

Russian fighters and bombers rely on that control because their radars suck. When the F16s finally become operational they'll have a big advantage in terms of their ability to see their adversaries.....and we're not providing our most recent radars.......yet.

[EX500rider]

39. The Ukrainian Patriots have 90 mile range

Maybe they snuck one up 20 miles to the front which would give them a 70 mile range or so..how far back was the target?

[Kaleva]

46. Heard a report the an RU air defense crew has been arrested