Ukraine claimed on Monday that it shot down a Russian military reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Azov on Sunday. The loss of even a single A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft could be a serious blow to the Kremlin's air power in the region.
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With a powerful radar that rotates six times every minute on the fuselage and a bellyful of surveillance gear, the plane can spot missile launches, airborne bombing runs and other military activity in the conflict. As the second anniversary of Russia's Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine nears, The Associated Press obtained rare and exclusive access aboard the giant Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, aircraft. With 26 military personnel and an AP journalist aboard, it flew a 10-hour reconnaissance mission from central France to Romanian airspace and back, peering with electronic eyes across southern Ukraine and the Black Sea to Russian-occupied Crimea and beyond.
Circling around and around high in the skies of eastern Europe, secretive surveillance flights for NATO closely watch Russian activity along the military alliance s eastern flank
Off in the distance, Ukraine, fighting for its survival. Seen from up here, in the cockpit of a French air force surveillance plane flying over neighbouring Romania, the snow-dusted landscapes look deceptively peaceful.