parted for a word that is almost a smile".

One significant section of the video shows drones homing in on two Beriev A-50s, giant AWACS aircraft first produced in the Soviet Union.Of all the aircraft targeted by Operation Spider's Web, the A-50, with its radar capable of seeing targets and threats more than 600km (372 miles) away, is arguably the most important.

Before the full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia was thought to operate around nine A-50s. Before last Sunday, as many as three had been shot down or damaged in an earlier drone attack.The latest footage strongly implies that drones hit the circular radar domes of the two A-50s parked at the Ivanovo Severny airbase, north-east of Moscow.However, since the video feed cuts out at the moment of impact, this is hard to completely verify.

Satellite imagery, which clearly displays the wreckage of numerous bombers, is inconclusive when it comes to the A-50.But Russia's fleet of these crucial aircraft could now be down to as few as four.

"Restarting production of the A-50 is presently highly unlikely, due to difficulties with import substitution and the destruction of production facilities," defence analyst Serhii Kuzan told me.

"As such, every loss of this type of aircraft constitutes a strategic problem for Russia, one it cannot quickly compensate for."UK Ministry of Defence funding took the company into hypersonic research with Rolls-Royce for an unmanned aircraft. But that was not enough to keep the business afloat.

Rolls-Royce declines to go into details about Reaction's collapse, but Mr Varvill is more specific."Rolls-Royce said it had other priorities and the UK military has very little money."

Aviation is a business with a very long gestation time for a product. It can take 20 years to develop an aircraft. This unforgiving journey is known as crossing the Valley of Death.Mr Varvill knew the business had to raise more funds towards the end of 2024 but big investors were reluctant to jump on board.