Ukraine Just Blew Up Russia's Rare Laser Plane

A Beriev A-50U radar plane may have been the real target

A Beriev A-50U. Via Wikimedia Commons

No fewer than eight times since the end of summer, the Russian air force has flown one of its few surviving Beriev A-50U radar planes to Taganrog South Airport in southern Russian, 125 miles from the front line in Ukraine.

And not for no reason. That’s where the Beriev factory airfield is. When one of Russia’s four or five A-50Us—rough analogues of the U.S. Air Force’s Boeing E-3 radar planes—needs repair, overhaul or upgrade, it has to fly to Taganrog … and stay there for days if not weeks.

That makes a it a big, fat target for Ukraine’s growing arsenal of homemade cruise missiles and deep-strike drones. After tempting fate seven times, the Russian air force finally exposed a precious A-50U to attack on Monday.

That attack didn’t destroy the A-50Us that’s been parked in Taganrog since at least Nov. 18. Instead, the Ukrainian munitions struck a Beriev A-60 laser plane that’s been parked at the airport for years.