- Russia went to war in February 2022 with potentially just seven Beriev A-50U radar planes
- The A-50Us use top-mounted radars to watch for Ukrainian warplanes and drones
- In a series of attacks going back three years, the Ukrainians may have knocked out more than half of the A-50Us
- A drone strike last week reportedly damaged a fourth A-50U on the ground in western Russia
Sortieing drones deep inside Russia on 17 March, Ukrainian forces may have damaged one of the few Beriev A-50U radar planes left in the Russian air force's depleted inventory. Moscow's air force isn't blind. But it may be more blind than it was just a few days ago.
One of potentially five surviving A-50Us was on the tarmac at the 123rd Aviation Repair Plant in Staraya Russa, in Novgorod Oblast 630 km from the Russia-Ukraine border, when drones attacked. There was "confirmed damage to the aircraft," as the drones apparently punched holes in the roof of a large hangar, the Ukrainian general staff reported.
The four-engine plane, which boasts a top-mounted radar and room for 15 crew, "was on the company's property for maintenance and was perhaps awaiting an upgrade," the general staff stated. If the damage is serious, the A-50U could prove difficult or impossible to repair. That would reduce the Russian A-50U fleet to potentially just four flyable planes: possibly too few for around-the-clock monitoring of the air space over Ukraine.
Capable of detecting Ukrainian aircraft, drones and missiles from hundreds of kilometers away, the A-50Us are priceless eyes in the sky. But they're also big fat targets in the air—and when they're on the ground.
According to aviation expert Tom Cooper, the Russian air force began Russia's wider war on Ukraine in February 2022 with potentially seven active A-50Us.
Following a series of Ukrainian attacks on the radar planes in the air and on the ground in 2023 and 2024, the A-50U fleet was stable for two years. Between early 2024 and early 2026, the Russians may have been down to just four flyable A-50Us. Five or six if they managed to repair one of the radar planes the Ukrainians damaged in a February 2023 drone raid.
The more recent drone raid may have reduced the A-50U fleet by one more precious airframe.
Attriting the A-50Us
Ukraine has systematically targeted Russia's A-50U fleet throughout the war, eliminating or damaging multiple aircraft:
- A Ukrainian drone damaged an A-50U on the ground in Belarus in February 2023.
- In January 2024, a long-range Ukrainian missile—reportedly a US-made Patriot—shot down an A-50U over the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine.
- Six weeks later, in February 2024, another Ukrainian missile, an ex-Soviet S-200, struck a third A-50U in the air in the same area.
Trending Now
Following the 2024 shoot-downs, the Russian air force swiftly grounded its surviving A-50Us and scrambled to replace the two or three lost planes. That meant cycling at least one older and possibly unflyable A-50U—out of several dozen Beriev built in the 1980s—through a repair plant in Taganrog in southern Russia.
When the dust settled, the Russians had at most six—possibly just five—flyable A-50Us. And some of them had scattered to northern Russia or the Russian Far East, helping to keep them safe from Ukrainian strikes. At least one A-50U was spotted in the Far East as recently as 18 March.
Iran crammed its drones onto one 250-meter ship. Ukraine could have told them how that ends.
Through 2025 and early 2026, there may have been as few as two or three A-50Us in western or southern Russia, placing them within range of Ukrainian air space. Two or three A-50Us aren't terribly useful, given that it takes at least three of the lumbering planes to maintain anything approaching around-the-clock coverage of a given area for even a limited span of time.
The surviving radar planes would be even less useful if Ukraine managed to damage or destroy yet another one this month, reducing the fleet to a new low of potentially just four operational airframes.
The Russians have other ways of monitoring the sky over Ukraine, including ground-based radars. But the A-50Us, which can quickly change position and climb high for the best top-down view, are uniquely valuable as Russian forces struggle to blunt Ukrainian air power.
As Ukrainian strikes whittle down the A-50U fleet, the Russians still aren't totally blind in the air. But they may be seeing much less clearly.
