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NewsTranscript
00:00You would think that Russia would be used to humiliation by now.
00:04Embarrassment has become a way of life for a country that has failed to take Ukraine,
00:07despite supposedly being much stronger. And no one in Russia is more red-faced than Putin,
00:13who has watched as every promise he made fell by the wayside.
00:16Now there's even more humiliation to add to the pile. Coming by way of Sweden,
00:21there is something terrifying in Ukraine's skies that is stopping the Russian aerial assault in
00:25its tracks. It's an aircraft that Russia never expected to see, and frankly,
00:30still doesn't seem to be able to see. And it's flying in Ukraine right now,
00:34under Russian noses and seemingly impervious to any attempts to stop it.
00:38That aircraft is the Swedish ASC-890. And Russia doesn't seem to be able to do anything about it.
00:45Official confirmation has come from Ukraine's Ministry of Defense that the Swedish-supplied
00:49ASC-890 is in the skies of Ukraine. And better yet, it's been conducting combat missions over
00:55Ukraine since March 2026, and Russia didn't seem to know a thing about it. The aircraft,
01:01which is an Airborne Early Warning Control or AEW and C plane, is capable of linking up with several
01:07of Ukraine's Western-made fighter jets, including the F-16, Mirage 2000, and in the future, the Swedish
01:13Gripen. And it serves as both a target detector and an aerial coordinator that improves the effectiveness
01:19of all of those aerial platforms. In combination with the F-16, Mirage 2000, and Gripen, it forms the
01:26basis of a modern network-centric air combat system according to NATO standards, the Ministry declares.
01:32For Russia, this means that Ukraine's air defenses, and perhaps even its aerial attacking capabilities,
01:37have received a massive upgrade. Before we move on, this channel is built by real people who care
01:44about getting the story. Subscribe, join the conversation below, and consider becoming a
01:49member to support human-made, military reporting, and unlock exclusive content.
01:54We had hints that the Swedish plane was in the skies several months before the Ministry of Defense
01:58delivered its confirmation. Back in March, United24 media reported that the aircraft appeared to be
02:04flying in Ukrainian airspace on March 20th, with this observation serving as the first public
02:09indication that Ukraine had deployed the platform. However, the Ministry stayed quiet, likely because
02:14Ukraine wanted a chance to really get to grips with what the ASC-890 could do before it went public,
02:19and let Russia know for sure that Ukraine now has AEW and C capabilities. A video also surfaced of the
02:26aircraft in flight, though it's unclear if it was taking part in an operation or a test flight at the
02:31time.
02:31The war zone also reports that there had been rumors of a Ukrainian radar plane taking flight
02:36in the Lviv area in April 2025, using the call sign WELCOME. And before that, an aircraft using the
02:43same call sign was recorded flying in Polish and Hungarian airspace, perhaps en route to Ukraine.
02:49It was never confirmed if this aircraft was an ASC-890, but in the wake of what we've seen since,
02:55it seems likely. Russia won't be happy to learn about this new radar plane taking the sky,
02:59and Putin will be fuming about the fact that Sweden has provided yet more tangible support
03:04for Ukraine as it defends itself against the Russian invasion. But trumping all of this is
03:09the fact that the ASC-890 has been flying since March. Why is that so bad for Russia?
03:15Despite this plane being big, bulky and an obvious candidate for being taken out by air defenses,
03:20Russia hasn't been able to shoot it down and may not have even known that it was in the skies
03:24to begin with.
03:25As Euromiden Press points out in its report on Ukraine's latest revelation,
03:29the ASC-890 is far from a stealth aircraft. It can't be if it's going to serve its function as
03:35a
03:35radar early warning plane. These types of planes radiate electromagnetic energy, which should make
03:40them easy to locate for air defenses that have radars capable of seeing deep enough into their zone of
03:45operation. The ASC-890 is also relatively large and much slower than the fighter jets that it supports,
03:51so it's not like it can maneuver out of the way of an air defense missile if one locks on.
03:56Yet Russia hasn't been able to do a thing for six months. That could be because Russia wasn't
04:01looking for the ASC-890 over Ukraine, though that seems like a weak argument.
04:05That massive electromagnetic signal could have given the game away, assuming it had been spotted
04:10by radar systems that operate by scanning across a radius of airspace. What seems more likely is that
04:15Russia hasn't been able to shoot down Ukraine's Swedish aircraft because it doesn't have
04:19enough air defenses operating close enough to the front to spot it. Ukraine has made that happen.
04:25Over the last year or so, Ukraine has been shattering Russian air defenses in the occupied
04:29territories, opening up gaps that have been exploited for Ukraine's medium and long-range strikes.
04:35Ukraine reports that Russia has lost 1,609 anti-aircraft systems as of September 7th,
04:41four of which were destroyed on September 6th alone. Russia's air defense situation has gotten so bad
04:47that the Center for European Policy Analysis labelled it as threadbare in a June article,
04:52pointing out that the increasing success of Ukraine's strikes in places like Moscow and St. Petersburg
04:57indicates that Putin is struggling to protect Russian territory. These regions are Russia's crown
05:02jewels. If Putin can't even muster the air defenses needed to keep them safe, you can almost guarantee
05:08that frontline defenses in Ukraine are even further down his priority list. That is humiliation.
05:15The supposedly strong nation with the massive air defense network can't seem to stop an AEW and C
05:21aircraft that pumps out more than enough of the electromagnetic energy that makes it visible in
05:25the skies. Compounding the embarrassment for Russia is that it knows all too well how vulnerable these
05:31types of aircraft can be. After all, it has seen Ukraine take out several of Russia's equivalents of
05:36the ASC 890, aided by this very issue. Back in early June 2024, Ukraine shot down a pair of Russia's
05:44Beriev A-50 spy planes in the space of two months, the first going down on January 15th, followed by
05:50a
05:50second on February 23rd. The latter was hit somewhere between the Russian cities of Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don,
05:57suggesting that Ukraine was able to detect Russia's A-50s from a fair distance away.
06:02Euromiden Press brings up other examples, noting that Russia went to war with about seven of these
06:06planes. And besides the two destroyed in early 2024, Ukraine has also damaged one with a drone
06:12as it was on the ground in Belarus. Today, Russia's A-50s are deployed deeper into its own territory,
06:17out of the range of Ukrainian missiles, which naturally makes them far less useful for
06:22coordinating fighter jets. The planes Russia still has appear to be patrolling near the Volga River,
06:27where they keep an eye out for incoming cruise missiles. That's a clue as to why the ASC 890
06:32is so valuable to Ukraine, but we'll get to that. The point we're making is that,
06:37for as important as the ASC 890 is to Ukraine, it's far from an invulnerable aircraft. Russia should,
06:43theoretically, be able to find it and destroy it, either in the skies or wherever Ukraine keeps it
06:48when it's not on a mission. But that hasn't happened. Russia doesn't even seem to have known that
06:53the ASC 890 was operational, and it certainly hasn't been able to target the plane.
06:58Coming back to Ukraine's announcement, it's been a long time coming. Ukraine's former defense
07:02minister, and now its Minister of Energy, Denis Shmyal, announced back in August 2025 that Ukraine
07:08had received the first ASC 890 it's due to get from Sweden in an ex-post where he also revealed
07:14that
07:14Ukraine and Sweden were going to sign a joint manufacturing contract. Sweden confirmed the
07:19transfer, showing us that Ukraine had this aircraft for roughly seven months before the rumours
07:24started flying about its development, and about a year before the ASC 890 was officially confirmed
07:30to be flying over Ukraine. The transfer was made as part of the 16th and, to that date,
07:35the largest Swedish support package delivered to Ukraine. Valued at $1.25 billion, that package was
07:42focused on collective air defense, and just by existing, it showed that Putin's attempts to
07:46intimidate Sweden into withdrawing its support for Ukraine weren't working. Yet another humiliation
07:52for the Russian president. And now he knows that at least one ASC 890 is in the air, and it's
07:58helping
07:58Ukraine to counter Russia's main strategy as the invasion moves deeper into 2026 and beyond.
08:04But before we dig deeper into what the ASC 890 brings to Ukraine and why it's so important,
08:09this is a reminder that you're watching the military show. If you haven't subscribed to the
08:13channel now is the perfect time, and if you want to make sure that you don't miss any of our
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08:23We've already touched on what makes the ASC 890 so special by revealing to you that it is an AEW
08:29and C aircraft loaded with radars that provide enhanced visibility. The basic specifications for the
08:34plane hint at its capabilities without really digging into them. The ASC 890 has a service ceiling of
08:407,620 meters, and it can stay in the air for up to seven hours before it needs refueling.
08:46Its top speed of 530 kilometers per hour isn't much to write home about when it comes to military
08:52aircraft, but speed isn't the point of the ASC 890. Capability combined with cost effectiveness is
08:58what really matters here. Army recognition points out that the ASC 890 specifications make it ideal for
09:04carrying out regional surveillance missions at a far lower cost than jet-powered platforms.
09:09So Ukraine has a plane that is relatively cheap to run, but the real difference maker in the ASC 890
09:15has nothing to do with the plane itself. It's all about the radar. The ERI radar system. Officially
09:22designated as the PS 890, this radar system is called a True Force Multiplier by its manufacturer,
09:28Saab. And it's easy to see why. Based on Active Electronically Scanned Array or Acer technology,
09:34the ERI is an adjustable radar that can be tweaked to serve several purposes, including scanning over
09:41a wide area or more in-depth surveillance carried out over a smaller region. Capable of operating in
09:47all weather conditions due to its S-band technology, the ERI is precise and has a fast update rate,
09:54ensuring that all networked systems get the data that it generates as quickly as possible. The ERI can track
09:59targets up to 400 kilometers away when operating in favorable conditions, which may offer a hint as
10:05to why Russia hasn't been able to strike Ukraine's ASC 890 yet. The range its radar offers allows the
10:11plane to stay deep inside Ukraine while still being useful, which when combined with Russia's air defense
10:16issues makes it difficult to pin down. The ERI can also track a wide range of targets from fighter jets
10:22and other planes to cruise missiles, drones and even maritime targets. When installed into an ASC 890,
10:29this radar sits in a rectangular fairing located above the plane's fuselage. That's a departure from
10:35the spinning disks most people associate with radars. There's a reason for that. Spinning dishes create
10:40gaps as the switch between searching and tracking modes requires waiting for the dish to come back around.
10:46The ERI allows for much faster tracking, as its design allows for its beams to be steered electronically.
10:51What all of this means is that the ASC 890 provides Ukraine with something that it can't get from its
10:56ground radars, a top-down view of the battlefield at altitude. What this plane does is essentially put
11:02a radar thousands of meters into the sky, allowing incoming targets to be detected far earlier than
11:07they would be by a ground-based system that is limited by the Earth's curvature. With ground radars,
11:12anything over the system's horizon and beyond the curve is typically difficult to sight. The same goes
11:17for aerial radars, only that horizon extends massively. With all of the technical stuff out
11:21of the way, let's consider what this plane means for Ukraine operation. For one, the ASC 890 is
11:27officially the first AEW&C aircraft that Ukraine has ever operated. That's huge because it means that
11:32Ukraine is introducing new capabilities beyond its own advancements in drone warfare into the war with
11:37Russia. These types of aircraft not only offer enhanced visibility, as we've already covered,
11:42but by having them, Ukraine also takes a step closer to integrating itself into the NATO ecosystem.
11:48As NATO itself points out, AEW&C aircraft, which can also be called airborne warning and control system
11:55or AWACS aircraft, offer eyes in the skies that benefit all NATO forces. Communications, air
12:02surveillance, battlefield management, and aerial command and control are all made possible by planes like
12:07the ASC 890. NATO has a lot of these aircraft operating at any given time to support air
12:13policing, airspace management, and counter-terrorism missions. In the long term, Ukraine's exposure to
12:18the ASC 890 means it also gains a better understanding of these types of aircraft. It makes it easier for
12:24Ukraine to slot into the NATO defense ecosystem should the time come when Ukraine is able to join the
12:29NATO alliance. Even if that time doesn't come, Ukraine can still use the experience it's gaining to make
12:35itself a useful partner to NATO. One caveat to all of this before we move on.
12:39Though the ASC 890 is the first AEW&C aircraft that Ukraine has ever operated as part of its own
12:45military, the nation wasn't completely bereft of experience with these types of aircraft before
12:49the arrival of Sweden's plane. During the Soviet era, Ukraine was the technological heartland and
12:55manufacturing base that Russia used to build much of its equipment. Ukraine was responsible for
13:00building Soviet Antonov An-71, which flew from the Svyatoshin factory airfield in 1985. A prototype of
13:07this airframe logged 362 flights, so it's safe to say that it worked. It might have even become one of
13:12Ukraine's key aircraft were it not for a combination of funding issues, technical challenges, and the
13:17collapse of the Soviet Union, ensuring that it never reached full production. Still, what this means is
13:22that Ukraine already had some knowledge of AEW&C before the ASC 890 arrived. Now it's building on that
13:28knowledge with an aircraft that is already used by Sweden and now NATO. What we've covered so far
13:34is why the ASC 890 could be valuable to Ukraine's future. But what about right now? Sweden's plane
13:41provides Ukraine with a capability that it's never had before, which is the ability to gain a top-down
13:45view across a wider area of its own airspace. That matters because it means that the ASC 890 is able
13:51to provide valuable support to Ukraine's Western fighter jets, especially when they're engaged in the
13:56one thing that Ukraine really needs them for right now, defending against Russia's aerial bombardments.
14:01As we've moved deeper into 2026, Russia has spent most of the summer and spring utterly failing to
14:07make the advances on the ground that Putin demanded. Russia has started to rely more heavily than ever
14:11before on aerial assaults. We can see that in the numbers. According to the Kyiv Independent,
14:17Russia has fired at least 1,858 missiles at Ukraine between January 1st and August 27th.
14:24That's on top of tens of thousands of drones, some of which are now jet-powered,
14:28making them difficult for Ukraine's own drone interceptors to stop.
14:32Russia's use of missiles also accelerated to reach record levels in July, with 474 fired.
14:39August, or at least the first 27 days, saw a slowdown to 195 missiles. However, this slowdown also
14:45came as Ukraine started to run out of the missile interceptors it needed to stop Russia's missiles
14:49in their tracks, suggesting that Russia now feels it can achieve the same results that it did before,
14:54only with fewer missiles. The BBC adds that the volume of air raid alerts in the Ukrainian capital
14:59of Kyiv is now at an all-time high, as people are being forced to head into shelters up to
15:0413 times
15:05per day as Russia fires barrages of aerial projectiles. Ukraine needs anything and everything
15:11that it can add to its layered air defenses to blunt Russia's attacks, and the ASC 890 fits the bill.
15:16Not because it's an aircraft capable of shooting down drones and missiles, but because it's one of
15:20the best in the world at tracking those projectiles long before they reach their targets. What we're
15:25seeing Ukraine do now is use its ASC 890 as an aerial radar, triggering the deployment of fighter jets
15:31that can shoot down at least the most dangerous of Russia's cruise missiles and drones as early as
15:36possible in their flights. Ukraine has to be careful. The lack of stealth and speed in the ASC 890
15:41means that it can't be allowed to stray too close to the front, but as long as it's in the
15:45skies and
15:46protecting cities with its radar capabilities, Ukraine has a valuable asset on its hands.
15:51As for Sweden, it continues to support Ukraine no matter what the Kremlin says. Swedish intelligence
15:56already believes that Russia is going to remain a threat to its neighbors long after Putin is gone,
16:01which frames all of the support that Sweden now offers to Ukraine.
16:05Sweden wants to stave off that threat and ensuring that Ukraine can defend itself and fight back
16:09against Russia is the best way to do that. Ever since the bumper military aid package that saw
16:14the ASC 890 arrive in Ukraine in the first place, Sweden has dedicated even more money to Ukraine's
16:19cause. In February, the country pledged an additional $1.4 billion in military aid as part of a package
16:25that included air defense supplies, long-range missiles, drones and ammo. Another smaller package of
16:31$28 million was committed toward the end of August, with half of that money to be dedicated to the
16:36purchase of US weapons. Sweden isn't backing down. Sending one of its best reconnaissance
16:42planes to Ukraine was evidence enough of that, and there has been plenty more to follow ever since.
16:47For Ukraine, the ASC 890 is a key air defense asset, could serve as an offensive asset if the
16:52opportunity presents itself, and allows for further integration into the NATO fold. But for Sweden,
16:58this plane is a message to Putin. Ukraine will receive support until Russia finally retreats in
17:03failure. At times, Sweden has even sent weapons that it thought were obsolete into Ukraine,
17:08only for Ukraine to show the world how to use them. Such was the case when Sweden gifted its entire
17:13stock
17:14of PBV-302 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. Those vehicles are now doing some amazing things in
17:20Ukraine. You can find out what by watching our video. But before you do, subscribe and tell us what
17:25you think in the comments below. And if you want even more from the channel, consider becoming a member
17:29for access to exclusive content. And thank you, as always, for watching.
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