Ukrainian Drones Reportedly Torch Russia’s Secret A-60 Laser Aircraft in Taganrog Strike, Video

Drones appear to have struck one of Russia’s rarest and most classified aircraft—the A-60 airborne laser laboratory—during a nighttime drone attack on the Taganrog aviation complex, according to footage published by the OSINT community Exilenova+ on November 25.

Video and eyewitness photos circulating online show explosions and a large fire inside the military-industrial zone that includes both the Beriev Aviation Scientific-Technical Complex and the Taganrog-Yuzhny airfield, Russia’s main testing site for special-purpose aircraft.

A blow to Russia’s most exotic weapons program

Analysts reviewing the footage believe the target was likely the A-60, an experimental airborne laser system built on a heavily modified Il-76 transport airframe.

It was designed in the Soviet era to test a megawatt-class laser intended for space deployment under the “Skif-D” program.

Only two prototypes were ever completed—both unique assets that never entered operational service. The aircraft seen burning in the video, reportedly tail number RA-86879, had been parked at the airfield for years.

The facility that was hit houses the engineering teams that developed Russia’s A-50 AWACS fleet, the canceled A-100 program, and several naval and long-range aviation upgrades.

Strike also hit hangars used for modernizing Tu-95MS bombers

Exilenova+ reported that the attack also ignited a hangar used to overhaul and modernize Russia’s Tu-95MS strategic bombers to the MSM variant, which can carry additional Kh-101 cruise missiles — the same long-range weapons Russia fires routinely at Ukrainian cities.

Russia’s regional governor said three people were killed in the strike, and several buildings—including apartment blocks, warehouses, and industrial structures—were damaged.

Independent Russian channels and OSINT groups reported that residents saw “a large aircraft on fire,” consistent with the A-60’s location.

Earlier, Ukrainian drones carried out a precision strike on the Perekop Bromine Plant in the city of Krasnoperekopsk in northern Crimea.

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