Ukrainian air-defenses reportedly shot down two of the Russian air force’s rarest and most valuable command aircraft on Sunday: a Beriev A-50 radar early-warning plane and an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post.
Ukrainian media has cited government officials confirming the purported shoot-downs, but there’s little hard evidence of the incidents.
Ukraine’s RBC Radio posted what it claimed was an audio recording of the Il-22’s crew radioing an S-O-S to controllers apparently in Anapa, on the Russian side of the Sea of Azov’s southern coast. “Urgently requesting ambulance and fire crew,” the crew radioed.
Don’t both these aircraft normally operate well outside the range of any Ukrainian anti-aircraft system?
It says in the article that their range may have been severely limited by friendly electronic jamming. They may have flown within the range of patriot AA by mistake trying to support Russian military. Hopefully two airframes are total losses.