October 16, 2025:
Last year Russia lost the last of its A-50 AWACS/Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft. It took nearly a year before anyone could confirm that Russia had lost its last AWACS aircraft over Ukraine. Since then Russia tried to get the new A-100 AWACS into service but, as of this year only two prototypes exist and neither of them is capable of operating as an AWAS because of missing components and lack of testing a completed aircraft.
In Ukraine Russia used its A-50U aircraft to track Ukrainian aircraft in flight and the location of Ukrainian ground radars while also finding targets in Ukraine for Russian missile attacks. Russia suspects that the Ukrainians used their S-300 and Patriot Anti-aircraft missile systems to stage a trap to ambush the A-50U destroyed in early 2024. The Russians noted how this S-300/Patriot trap worked and avoided it during the February incident that saw the second A-50U shot down. The Ukrainians outsmarted the Russians twice and to avoid another such incident Russia has withdrawn T-50Us from anywhere near Ukrainian airspace. Russia cannot afford to lose anymore A-50Us. If Russia lost another A-50U they would no longer be able to maintain round-the-clock surveillance of Ukrainian airspace.
Russia built about 40 A-50U aircraft/Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft at a cost of about $350 million each. Russia cannot afford to build any new ones because they don’t have access to the Western components required. In 2019 the Russian Air described in some detail the capabilities of this new version. In 2015 A-50Us were spotted operating in Syria, where the first four A-50Us delivered were apparently getting some practical experience in a combat zone. In Syria American and Israeli aircraft were active and available for the A-50U to practice their new detection and tracking capabilities on. The Syrian experience also made it possible to tweak the A-50U capabilities in spotting large naval and land targets and directing airstrikes at them.
The new U version entered service in 2011 but foreign ELINT electronic intelligence experts did not have a good opportunity to see how effective it was until 2015. To do that you have to get your ELINT aircraft close to an A-50U in a combat zone. In this case, the most effective ELINT aircraft turned out to be several American F-22s stealth fighters quietly, and apparently undetected, operating over Syria. Officially the F-22s were there to perform missions where effective stealth was a requirement. That meant reconnaissance missions during periods when the Russians or Syrians were angry at the U.S. Russia had some of its most modern electronic warfare systems operational and vulnerable to close examination by American and Israeli ELINT. The A-50U was apparently unable to detect the F-22.
While both the Ukrainians and Americans have defeated the A-50U, this Russian AWACs is still effective against Chinese and other foreign aircraft. Russia is saving its A-50Us for aircraft it can safely detect and track.
Back in 2012 Russia upgraded its A-50 AWACS and the first of these A-50Us entered service. The A-50 AWACS entered service in 1984 and 40 were built by the time the Cold War ended. In the 1990s most of the A-50s didn't fly much at all. The A-50 is based on the Il-76 transport. After over a decade of development the A-50 became a growing presence in Russian air operations during the 1980s.
The inspiration for the A-50 was the U.S. Air Force E-3 AWACS, which entered service in 1977. This was a continuation of AWACS development that began in 1944. The first AWACS appeared in 1945, when the U.S. Navy deployed radar equipped aircraft to control large numbers of airborne warplanes in combat. The Navy continued developing airborne early warning and control aircraft in the 1950s with the introduction of the E-1 and replaced it with the E-2 in the early 1970s and the E-3 in 1977. This model is still in service and 68 were built between 1977 and 1992.
The A-50 used less capable technology than the U.S. AWACS. The A-50 radar only had a range of 200 kilometers, compared to 400 for the E-3. The A-50 upgrade uses modern digital, rather than analog systems and has a max range of 600 kilometers. The new computers allowed 150 aircraft to be tracked and this was done more quickly and with fewer equipment breakdowns. The A-50U could control ten warplanes at a time, while these aircraft perform air-to-air or ground attack missions. The upgrade was actually underway when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and was dormant until money became available to revive it two decades ago.
China bought some of the older A-50s and was so dissatisfied that they switched to a new AWACS design based on the Boeing 737-800 airliner. The 157 ton Il-76 jet is considered less reliable and more expensive to maintain than the twin engine, 79 ton, Boeing 737-800. Chinese airlines, some of them controlled by the Chinese Air Force, have been using the 737-800 since 1999, a year after this model entered service. So no matter how much Russia upgrades the A-50 they are still stuck with an expensive aircraft that is much less capable than American models.