For months, Ukrainian intelligence meticulously tracked every cruise missile launch and activated a retaliation strike from James Bond movies on 1 June.
A senior US Army officer has confirmed that Ukraine used American-made Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to down a Russian Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft in January 2024, a historic first.
Reports suggest Ukrainian drone strikes overnight targeted a Russian aircraft plant in Rostov Oblast that refurbishes and modernizes A-50 radar planes, but ISW can't confirm the damage.
Previous Russian aircraft losses have prompted Russian forces to temporarily decrease aviation activity throughout Ukraine, according to ISW. However, ISW said that the "15 aircraft and skilled pilots lost in two weeks are not negligible for Russia" given the estimated total of 300 Sukhoi aircraft in its airbase.
To bridge the gap caused by the A-50 losses, Russia is likely exploring alternatives, including repurposing aircraft and reactivating mothballed A-50s.
As Russia had lost its second A-50 AWACS aircraft, it can replace it with seven other airframes, but the loss of specialist crews in quick succession will further strain those remaining and force consideration of new operating areas, per UK intelligence.
After the shootdown of Russia's AWACS A-50 aircraft over Ukraine earlier, Russia has now deployed a replacement A-50 airborne early warning plane farther from Ukraine over Russian territory, per British intelligence.