Russia Built Eight A-50U Radar Planes. It Has Acknowledged Losing Three.

Russia's airborne early-warning capability now rests on roughly five aircraft, of which about four can fly — arithmetic on figures Russian sources have themselves conceded. On 7 July 2026 all four flyable aircraft were airborne at once. We checked the estimate against Defense Express, The Aviationist, United24 Media and CyberBoroshno tracking. It holds. Four things in the commissioning dossier did…