‹ TORSALVO Codex
🇷🇺 Beriev A-50 (Mainstay)
Air · Beriev (Taganrog) — Vega radar sistemi; Il-76 platformu Ilyushin · 1985 (A-50U modernizasyonu 2011)
A Russian airborne early-warning aircraft built by mounting a giant radar dome (rotodome) on an Il-76 transport; a 'flying command post' that scans the sky and directs fighters, but rare and expensive enough that its shootdowns in Ukraine were considered major blows.
Specifications
- Type: Airborne early warning & control aircraft (AEW&C / AWACS)
- Maker / origin: Beriev (Taganrog), Russia — Il-76 based
- Size / weight: MTOW ~190 t; rotodome diameter 9 m
- Propulsion: 4× Soloviev D-30KP turbofan
- Speed / range: Max ~850 km/h; range ~7,500 km, mission ~7 h 40 min
- Sensor: Liana / Vega-M (Shmel) surveillance radar; ~650 km air, ~300 km ground detection
- Crew: 15 (5 flight + 10 mission operators)
- Mission capacity: Track 50-60 targets; direct up to 10 (10-12 on A-50U) fighters
- Service: First flight 1978; service 1985; A-50U upgrade 2011; ~42 (A-50U ~8) built
Beats: Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye (ABD) — Hawkeye taşıyıcı tabanlı küçük gövdeli iken A-50 büyük gövdesiyle çok daha uzun menzil, daha fazla operatör ve daha geniş radar tabağı taşır, KJ-2000 (Çin) — A-50 hücresi KJ-2000'in de temelini oluşturdu; Rusya ham platform ve operasyonel olgunlukta erken yıllarda öndeydi
Loses to: Boeing E-7 Wedgetail (ABD/Avustralya) — sabit AESA 'top hat' radarıyla A-50'nin dönen mekanik tabağına kıyasla daha hızlı güncelleme, daha iyi düşük-iz hedef tespiti, Saab GlobalEye (İsveç) — Erieye ER AESA + çok-band sensör füzyonuyla daha modern, daha esnek ve daha ekonomik bir paket sunar, Boeing E-3 Sentry (ABD/NATO) — olgun veri-link ağı ve müttefik entegrasyonunda A-50'nin önünde; A-50 daha izole çalışır
The A-50 replaced the Soviet-era Tu-126 'Moss', mounting a 9-meter rotating radome on an Il-76 fuselage. Its value is as a 'flying command post': it sees enemy aircraft hundreds of km out and directs its own fighters — a force multiplier on its own. But being large, slow and few makes it a priority target; in the Ukraine war at least two A-50s were downed in the air in 2024 and one struck on the ground by FPV drones in 2025. With the production line closed, losses cannot be replaced; the A-100 Premier successor is delayed. Its peers (E-7, GlobalEye) moved to modern AESA while the A-50 largely stayed on a mechanically scanned radar.
Related systems
Related systems (Air): KAAN, Bayraktar KIZILELMA, ANKA-3, Bayraktar TB2, Bayraktar Akıncı, Vyriy OPTO 10, Skydagger, AKBABA, GÖKTUĞ (Gökdoğan/Bozdoğan), SOM
