![]() ![]() In addition to the base model, the Frogfoot also came in an export variant, the Su-25K, and a variety of two-seat trainers with a hunchback canopy, including the combat-capable Su-25UBM. ![]() Of course, it’s important to note at this juncture that the Su-25 is one of a handful of Soviet aircraft that received its own American computer game in 1990. They were again prominent in the Second Chechen War in 1999, where only one was lost. They then pursued a more general bombing campaign. Early on they helped wipe out Chechen aircraft on the ground and hit the Presidential Palace in Grozny with anti-concrete bombs. Russian Su-25 were back in action in the Chechnya campaign of 1994 to 1995, flying 5,300 strike sorties. The French used anti-tank missiles to destroy the fighter bombers on the ground in retaliation. Whoever ordered the attack didn’t consider that there was a French contingent stationed at the Yamoussoukro Airfield where the Frogfoots were based. When the government of President Laurent Gbagbo was angered by the perceived partisanship of French peacekeepers, his mercenary-piloted Su-25s bombed the French camp, killing nine. In one notable episode, Cote d’Ivoire acquired several Su-25s and used them in its civil war. Frogfoots have seen action in the service of Macedonia (against Albanian rebels), Ethiopia (against Eritrea, with one shot down), Sudan (target: Darfur), and Georgia versus Abkhazian separatists that shot down several. Those that didn’t use Su-25s in local wars-on both sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, for example-often exported them to countries that did. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Su-25s were passed onto the air services of all the Soviet successor states. In all, some fifteen Su-25s were shot down in Afghanistan before the Soviet withdrawal. However, as the Afghan rebels began to acquire Stinger missiles from the United States, Su-25s began to suffer losses and the Soviet pilots were forced to fly higher to avoid the man-portable surface-to-air missiles. They often teamed up with Mi-24 attack helicopters to provide air support for Soviet armored units. The Su-25 was the workhorse fixed-wing attack plane in the conflict, flying more than sixty thousand sorties in bombing raids on mujahedeen villages and mountain strongholds. The Su-25 was still packing plenty of antipersonnel firepower-and that’s exactly what was called for when it first saw action in Afghanistan beginning in 1981. ![]() ![]() For example, they made up only 2 percent of munitions expended by the Russian Air Force in Chechnya. However, use of such weapons was relatively rare. KAB-250 laser-guided bombs began to see use in Chechnya as well. Su-25s did make occasional use of Kh-25ML and Kh-29 laser guided missiles in Afghanistan to take out Mujahideen fortified caves, striking targets as far as five miles away. The lower tip of the Frogfoot’s nose holds a glass-enclosed laser designator. The Su-25 also has a Gsh-30-2 30-millimeter cannon under the nose with 260 rounds of ammunition, though it doesn’t have the absurd rate of fire of the GAU-8. The rockets come in forms ranging from pods containing dozens of smaller 57- or 80-millimeter rockets, to five-shot 130-millimeter S-13 system, to large singular 240- or 330-millimeter rockets. The Su-25’s armament has typically consisted of unguided 250 or 500 kilogram bombs, cluster bombs and rockets. The Thunderbolt’s mainstays are precision-guided munitions, especially Maverick antitank missiles, as well as its monstrous, fast-firing GAU-8 cannon. More importantly, the types of munitions usually carried are typically different. However, the Frogfoot has shorter range and loiter time, can only operate at half the altitude, and has a lighter maximum load of up to eight thousand pounds of munitions, compared to sixteen thousand on the Thunderbolt. And in their extensive combat careers, Su-25s have survived some really bad hits.ĭespite the similarities with the A-10, the Su-25 is a smaller and lighter, and has a maximum speed fifty percent faster than the Thunderbolt’s at around six hundred miles per hour. It also had armored fuel tanks and redundant control schemes to increase the likelihood of surviving a hit. Thus, the pilot of the Su-25 benefited from an “armored bathtub”-ten to twenty-five millimeters of armor plating that wrapped around the cockpit and even padded the pilot’s headrest. However, this would have exposed it to all kinds of antiaircraft guns. This meant flying low and slow to properly observe the battlefield and line up the plane for an attack run.įlying low would also help the Su-25 avoid all the deadly long-range SAMs that would have been active in a European battlefield. Like the A-10, the Su-25 was all about winning a titanic clash between the ground forces of NATO and the Warsaw Pact by busting tanks and blasting infantry in Close Air Support missions. ![]()
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