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Ukraine Hits Taganrog Aviation Hub Keeping Moscow’s Scarce A-50U AWACS Fleet Alive
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
Ukrainian drones struck a Russian military airfield in Taganrog overnight on September 6-7, with satellite monitoring detecting a fire in the aircraft parking area, according to Militarnyi, citing data from NASA’s FIRMS fire-monitoring system.
The thermal anomaly was recorded at approximately 2:44 am on the grounds of the military airfield.
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Located roughly 40 kilometers, or 25 miles, from Ukraine’s border, the facility is actively used by the Russian military and forms part of a larger aviation-industrial complex in Taganrog.
The airfield hosts Russia’s 325th Aircraft Repair Plant, which specializes in maintaining military transport aircraft and components used by the Il-76.
The Taganrog aviation plant also shares the airfield with a military unit belonging to Russia’s 5th Aviation Group.
Its proximity to Ukraine and its role in supporting Russian military aviation have made the site a recurring target of Ukrainian long-range strikes.
Another strategically important aviation facility lies immediately south of the airfield: the factory airfield of the Beriev Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex.
The Beriev facility repairs and modernizes Russia’s A-50U airborne early-warning and control aircraft, as well as servicing Il-76 transport aircraft and Il-38 maritime patrol planes.
A-50U aircraft are among Russia’s most valuable airborne surveillance platforms, providing long-range radar coverage and helping coordinate military aviation and air-defense operations.
Ukrainian open-source intelligence project CyberBoroshno identified the change after analyzing more than 1,600 aviation-related reports recorded between June and August.
The A-50U is one of Russia’s key airborne early warning and command aircraft used in the war against Ukraine. It does not carry out strikes itself but uses its long-range radar to detect aircraft, drones, and low-flying cruise missiles beyond the reach of ground-based radar systems.
The aircraft can transmit targeting data to Russian fighter jets, air defense units, and command posts, helping coordinate interceptions and track Ukrainian aerial attacks.
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