No. Ukraine already has access to AWACS which are flying nearby - radars on planes aren’t the issue. Those three planes were probably a result of a patriot trap. Patriot has a large range, but turning on the radar means the people you are targetting know to turn back. So Ukraine most likely had shorter range radars right at the frontline, that saw the planes approach from a large distance. To drop the glidebombs and not risk being shot down, they were dropping them 50kms from the frontline. To do that, you need to be very high up - thus visible to everyone. Previously Ukraine knew about those bombers (via the shittier radars), but didn’t have a way of shooting at them down without moving the patriot battery away from a city it was protecting.
So the way that most likely happened, was Ukrainians kept the patriot radar off. The planes were lit up on the short range radar they always had. When they were in their drop zone, they turned on the patriot radar and fired when the jets were deep into its firing range and unable to easily turn back and escape.
No. Ukraine already has access to AWACS which are flying nearby - radars on planes aren’t the issue. Those three planes were probably a result of a patriot trap. Patriot has a large range, but turning on the radar means the people you are targetting know to turn back. So Ukraine most likely had shorter range radars right at the frontline, that saw the planes approach from a large distance. To drop the glidebombs and not risk being shot down, they were dropping them 50kms from the frontline. To do that, you need to be very high up - thus visible to everyone. Previously Ukraine knew about those bombers (via the shittier radars), but didn’t have a way of shooting at them down without moving the patriot battery away from a city it was protecting.
So the way that most likely happened, was Ukrainians kept the patriot radar off. The planes were lit up on the short range radar they always had. When they were in their drop zone, they turned on the patriot radar and fired when the jets were deep into its firing range and unable to easily turn back and escape.