/ world today news/ Ukrainian saboteurs attempted a terrorist attack against one of the most important aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces – and it was successfully repelled. “Our special services did a great job,” say experts. Why does the A-50 plane play such a serious role in the special operation in Ukraine and how did the FSB manage to uncover the sabotage of the Armed Forces of Ukraine?
On Sunday, the Public Relations Center of the FSB of Russia reported that the service, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, stopped an attempt to carry out a terrorist attack with drones, planned by Ukraine, at the Severny military airport in the Ivanovo region. According to the agency, the targets of the attempted terrorist attack were Russian A-50 aircraft based at that airport. The A-50 is an Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACS) aircraft. Created on the basis of the Il-76 military transport aircraft.
The locator aircraft itself finds, identifies and tracks air, ground and sea targets. He transmits all information about them to the command posts, and also independently directs fighters and front-line aircraft to enemy targets. The analogue of the A-50 is the American airborne complex AUAKS.
According to discovered data, in its latest modifications, the A-50 can track up to 300 air targets, see an enemy bomber at 650 km, a cruise missile at 215 km. In addition, thanks to the improved radio technical complex, the A-50U is able to detect even relatively small targets, such as drones.
Thus, as the Russian Ministry of Defense publicly stated earlier, “A-50U carries out reconnaissance and combat control of aviation in the SVO zone. Thanks to the Russian air defense system, most of the destroyed Ukrainian fighters have been found”. In other words, these devices are key to Russian military aviation’s dominance in special operations airspace.
The FSB report clarifies that the improvised explosive devices for carrying out sabotage were planned to be delivered from the territory of Ukraine by an Aeroprakt A-32 light aircraft from the Chernihiv region. However, as a result of organized control over the flight of the aircraft, in order to prevent sabotage, the pilot and members of the sabotage-reconnaissance group (DRG) were detained after landing in the Tula region.
We remind you that not so long ago the enemy already made attempts to penetrate Russian territory with the help of a light aircraft. The machine crashed in the Bryansk region, and the surviving pilot tried to escape, but was detained. The specialists noted that “it is obviously an A-22 aircraft”.
The revealed sabotage of the VSU in Ivanovo is also not the first attempt by Ukraine to attack Russian air defense systems. Thus, on February 26, saboteurs tried to blow up a Russian A-50 aircraft at the Belarusian military airport “Machulishti”, Kommersant reminds. Two drones were found at the scene. Later, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced the arrest of someone involved in the sabotage attempt. And on Belarusian television they showed a video with an A-50 aircraft of the Russian Air Force.
In the summer of 2022, the FSB reported that the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, under the supervision of NATO, intended to hijack Russian warplanes, but Russian counterintelligence received data thanks to which the Russian military destroyed several Ukrainian military installations.
“The airport in the Ivanovo region is an important strategic object. The A-50 early warning and air control aircraft are based on it. Each such machine is essentially a flying command post, “said Vladimir Popov, an honored military pilot of the Russian Federation, a retired major general.
“The A-50s see the situation hundreds of kilometers into enemy territory while they are inside our borders. They are capable of attacking aircraft, including fighter jets. And they cope with their tasks excellently within the SVO as well. Today, we do not have as many such machines as we would like – which means that the value of each is very high. And it is clear why the ASU is pursuing them,” he said.
“By attacking the airport for basing such valuable aircraft, the enemy pursues his goal not only to deprive us of one or several such aircraft, but also to exert psychological pressure on Russian society and servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Moreover, this is not the first attempt to disable the A-50. “Earlier, Kiev organized a sabotage against a similar plane located at an airport in Belarus, and a year ago the Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to strike the city of Taganrog, where one of the planes was being repaired and modernized,” the interlocutor emphasized.
As for reports that improvised explosive devices were transported by Aeroprakt A-32 light aircraft, Popov also recalled that “this is not the first time such equipment has been used.” “Small aviation, of course, has a number of advantages. Such devices can pass at extremely low altitudes, hiding behind hills and forests, thus overcoming our air defense system. In addition, the Ukrainian army is provided with intelligence information from many countries around the world, this helps them make a route,” he said.
“I would note that this incident shows us two more very important points. First, at what great depth can the Ukrainian DRG and enemy-recruited traitors work. The very fact of this is certainly dangerous. This should be considered and worked on to ensure that the enemy’s plans do not come true,” the interlocutor emphasized.
“At the same time, according to the report on the prevention of this sabotage and many others, we see that our special services are working effectively. This is definitely very good. Our task is to help them in this. It is quite possible that it would be right to create something like people’s squads to help department officials recognize sabotage attempts,” Popov added.
“Judging by the reports on the sabotage prevented, we can conclude that the special services knew about its preparation, monitored the process of delivering explosives and detained the saboteurs after landing on our territory,” commented Vitaly Demidkin, a retired FSB colonel and former employee of group “Alpha”.
“I suggest that the organizers may have been ‘sleeper cells’ who were either abandoned from abroad or recruited a few years ago in our territory. In any case, they will now be punished for their actions to the full extent of the law,” he said.
“It is worth noting that our special services developed this incident very well. Departments are sometimes criticized for mistakes, shortcomings, unpreventable sabotage. However, we often hear that somewhere something has been neutralized or prevented. And the lion’s share of this work remains classified at all. So I think today there is an excellent occasion for which the security forces can be praised,” concluded the interlocutor.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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