No one in history has ever shot down an early warning aircraft
The Ukrainian Armed Forces accomplished what was considered impossible: no one in history has ever shot down an early warning aircraft A-50 AWACS.
To be fair, no one has seriously tried shooting down an AWACS before. It’s the sort of thing you expect to happen in World War 3, not in a relatively limited regional conflict.
Me wondering if the Ukranians are just that good, or if the Russians are just that inept.
“Yes”.
I don’t think this was particularly hard. If WWIII broke out I’d expect these would be an early target of anyone trying to get air superiority, and so a lot would be shot down. These are not cheap planes to run - not only do you have to pay for crew and fuel, but also a lot of people to look at the data they generate. You don’t expect minor countries to even have one - even Russia only has 10. As such I doubt they normally are even in a situation where there is a possibility to shooting them down.
the Ukrainians are clearly quite good by now, having held off an intense aggressor for this long… this kill is a good indication that they’re just getting better and better…
guess they cant claim that anymore
Ukraine should receive anything it wants to elimate the Russian aggressor.