Russian Su-35 shot down

Vincent J. Curtis

12 June 25

A Russian Su-35 Super-Flanker was shot down over Russia on June 9, 2025, and Ukrainian sources suggest it was downed by a Ukrainian flown F-16V Viper aided by a SAAB 340 Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) aircraft.  The reports are unconfirmed, but the German newspaper BILD reports that a Ukrainian F-16V fired a long-range AIM-120 guided missile at the Su-35 from a distance of 50 miles using tracking data provided by a SAAB 340 AEW&C, which had been tracking the Russian place from a distance of several hundred miles.  The Russian air-superiority fighter crashed near the Russian city of Korenvo, which lies in the Kursk Oblast. The Russian pilot parachuted safely, and survived.

The AIM-120 missile is a “fire and forget” type that ordinarily obtains its initial tracking data from its host plane, in this case the Ukrainian F-16.  Had the F-16 used its own internal radars to obtain a lock on the Russian jet, the Russian jet would have detected the presence of the F-16 and the pilot become aware of the possibility of an attack. The radars on board the SAAB 340 are much more powerful than can be fitted into an F-16 and, to the Russian jet, an AWE&C aircraft, being unarmed, posed no threat, besides being hundreds of miles away from it.

But the tracking data from the SAAB 340 provided the initial lock to the guided missile, enabling the F-16 keep its radars turned off, remaining effectively invisible to the Russian jet. If the Su-35 saw the F-16 at all, it would have seen it turn away at a great distance and the Russian pilot would not likely suspect that an attack was coming.  If the Russian pilot detected the incoming missile, it would have been too late to take evasive action.

There are other theories as to how the Su-35 was shot down, but there is no doubt that one was, and if it was by an F-16 carrying an AIM-120 aided by a Saab 340 AEW&C, it demonstrates a new development in air combat.

-30-