The Russians probably lost an А-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft with the tail number RF-50601 “Red” in the sky over Ukraine. Also reported the damage of the Il-22М11 air-borne command post.

It is reported by the Militarnyi with the reference to specialized sources.

The loss of such aircraft is a heavy blow to Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation and the Russian defense industry is not able to compensate this loss.

The weapon, which hit the aircraft is not known, can be surface-to-air missiles, air-to-air missiles, anti-radar missiles or malfunction. One likely option is a friendly fire.

It is worth noting that official representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have not yet confirmed this information.

Development of events in the Ukrainian infospace

One of the first profile Telegram channels that has reported a loss of communication with a Russian airborne early warning and control aircraft was the monitor, at 10:35 PM a message appeared on a highlight about an accident or a probable downing of an aircraft over the Sea of Azov.

Almost at this time, at 10:56 PM, this information was reported by the Nikolaevsky Vanyok Telegram channel, adding information about another aircraft the Il-22М11.

Later, at 11:00 PM, this information was confirmed by a military expert in the field of radio technology and blogger Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov.

“At 9:00 PM, a Russian A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft was shot down over the Sea of Azov. The second aircraft, Il-22 was stricken and went to Kerch,” Serhii “Flash” said in a statement.

A X-user monitoring Russian strategic aviation said that the plane fell near Berdiansk, and its tail number RF-50601.

At 11:30 PM, the Telegram channel monitor announced the radio interception from the airfield in Anapa, during which the crew of the Il-22PP called for a landing approach, an ambulance and firefighters.

А-50 AEW&C

А-50 is an airborne early warning and control aircraft based on the Il-76 military transport aircraft that conducted its maiden flight on 19 December 1978.

It was developed by the Taganrog Aviation Scientific-Technical Complex and the Vega Scientific and Production Association to replace the already outdated Tu-126. The operation of prototypes began in 1985, and the aircraft was adopted by the Soviet army in 1988.

In Soviet times, industry managed to produce about 31 aircraft, until nowadays there were not many “alive” aircrafts, only about 12 in various modifications: 9 in service with the Russian Air Force in modifications of А-50 and А-50U (3 and 6, respectively), the rest in service with Armed Forces of India.

The aircraft is equipped with the Shmel radio complex based on the Soviet Argon-50 airborne electronic computer.

The Shmel system includes:

• 3-D radar with passive direction finding channel;
• equipment for capturing and displaying the received information;
• an active request-response system and transmission of commands or target designation information to interceptors;
• digital computing complex for solving control tasks, pointing fighters at air targets;
• radio control command line equipment;
• communication system and telecode equipment;
• documentation equipment;
• state recognition system.

On board the aircraft, 10-11 operators work with the systems: commander, senior navigator, two navigators, senior escort operator, two escort operators, and radar and communication equipment flight engineers. Together with them, 5 flight crew members are on board.

The aircraft is capable of reconnaissance, aerial, ground and surface targets. With the use of optical-electronic systems onboard, the aircraft can detect ballistic missile torches at a distance of up to 800 kilometers, and the radar station is able to find and track aircrafts and cruise missiles at distances of up to 700 kilometers.

Targets by the type of air defense launchers, ballistic missiles – at a distance of 400 kilometers, and the concentration of armored vehicles – up to 450.

It is worth noting that for ground targets detection, an aircraft must be at the reached altitude to compensate for the terrain.

А-50 can give external target designation to fighters and act as an air command post.