The Russian Air Force Is Slowly Going Blind as Ukraine Blows Up Its A-50 Radar Planes

It's not for no reason the Ukrainians were able to shoot down an Su-35 fighter

It should shock no one that, on Saturday, the Russian air force lost a Sukhoi Su-35 fighter over Kursk Oblast in western Russia. It’s potentially the eighth Su-35 loss of the wider war.

The Russian air force isn’t exactly blind. But it’s getting blinder as Ukraine continues to whittle down the air force’s aerial radar coverage—by blowing up Beriev A-50 radar planes.

Initial reports that a Ukrainian Lockheed Martin F-16 shot down the Su-35 were apparently false. “According to updated information, the Su-35 fighter jet that took off from the Borisoglebsk air base was shot down by a surface-to-air missile system,” AviVector corrected.

In any event, the time and place of the shoot-down make sense. The Ukrainian air force has surged missile and planes into Kursk and Ukraine’s adjacent Sumy Oblast in an effort to halt a Russian offensive that’s threatening Sumy city and its quarter-million residents.

Of course the Russians have responded by sortieing their best fighters: the twin-engine, supersonic Su-35s.

The problem for the Russians is that the Su-35s may not enjoy the extended radar coverage normally provided by the four-engine, subsonic A-50s with their top-mounted radars.