Sukhoi Su-25 Grach (Frogfoot)

History

Since the early 1980s, the Sukhoi Su-25 (NATO codename "Frogfoot") has served the air offensive interests of the Soviet/Russian Air Force as well as the air forces of several countries around the world (mostly allied countries of the USSR or former USSR countries) . During his long combat career, he proved himself excellent through numerous combat maneuvers. At its core, the Su-25 is designed to function on the battlefield comparable to the US Air Force's eponymous ground attack platform, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.

Despite its decades-long origins, the Su-25 today (2012) continues to serve in a front-line combat role, consistently and appropriately modernized to meet the rigors and dangers of the modern battlefield. With its supporters still in place, the Su-25 should see a decade or more of faithful service in the near future, as the Horizon still lacks viable replacements.

The Cold War spanned from the late 1940s to the late 1980s, covering a tense part of modern world history. The line was essentially drawn between the West, led by the United States and its European allies, and the East, led by the Soviet Empire, which emerged from the upheavals of World War I. As a result of World War II, the Soviet Union became a formidable military power, largely due to Adolf Hitler's decision to invade the East, and his forces were ultimately stalled by overstretched supply lines and the Russian winter with Moscow so close not forward. The Soviet response was massive and brutal.

Workers and machines were relocated in various ways, eventually driving the German invaders back to Germany, and the capital, Berlin, was finally occupied by Soviet troops through bloody street fighting.

The events of World War II revealed a reshaped Europe, with new states rising and old states declining - many operating within different spheres of influence. The ideological-political divide between East and West will eventually come to a head and rightly assume that the next major war will once again take place across Europe, this time with thousands of modern tanks and armored vehicles and massive artillery and air support.

Nuclear weapons will also play a roleboth large and small, portable.

Therefore, both sides began to develop specialized anti-tank measures - heavy armored and armed tanks, anti-tank missiles, field guns and aircraft. For the latter requirement, the Americans turned to Fairchild Republic, which eventually produced the excellent A-10 Thunderbolt II, a twin-engine jet armed with a massive 30mm Gatling gun designed for the Soviet Union , which can break armor from above. Additionally, the vehicle's straight-wing nature has encouraged multiple weapon stations for the installation of armor-piercing air-to-surface missiles, rocket pods, and bomb-dropping. The A-10 is a well-armed machine with extensive armor for low-altitude attack roles, with engines mounted in various cabins above the fuselage for survivability.

The first flight took place on May 10, 1972, and the introduction of the system was finally approved in March 1977. The US Air Force became the main (and only) handler of the machine.

The Soviet response had a similar range - mostly traditional straight-wing designs powered by turbojets capable of delivering a wide range of ammunition. The design was entrusted to the Sukhoi Focus, which had decades of experience developing viable jets for the Soviet Air Force (another well-known Soviet focus was Mikoyan). The new requirements are written for armored ground attack aircraft and are intended to support ground forces in joint arms programs - particularly where enemy armor is involved.

The key to the design is its field survivability and weapons delivery, while all other qualities can be considered secondary (mainly speed and maneuverability).

The development of what would become the "Su-25" dates back to 1968, after various design studies, culminating in the T-8-0 test bed. A working prototype did not fly until February 22, 1975, when the T-8-1 took off for the first time. The aircraft was equipped with a pair of Tumansky RD-9B turbojets, and further scrutiny led to a number of inevitable modifications to the product. The T-8-2 became the second true prototype, while the T-8-2D mimicked much of what would later become the final pre-production Su-25 design.

T-8-3 as a development model. The first Soviet air group to stockpile the new Su-25 entered service in 1981, and NATO designated the aircraft as "frogfoot". Production of the Su-25 began in 1978 at Plant 31 in Tbilisi, Georgia (at the time within the Soviet Union).

The Su-25 was completed with a fairly simple design approach. The cockpit is attached to the front end of the fuselage in the traditional sense, with a clear canopy bounded by large window frames. The sole pilot sits in a titanium armored "hull" that provides maximum protection from ground-based small arms and artillery attacks. The aircraft received a short, pointed nose cone assembly and a rather low fuselage barrel length.

The engines are mounted on the side of the fuselage, rather than side by side inside, to keep them well separated, reducing the chance of both engines stalling or losing power in a direct impact. The engine is drawn in through a round, rectangular, side-mounted air intake behind the cockpit and expelled through a circular port on the side of the rear wing. The fin itself is conventional, consisting of a vertical fin, a pair of horizontal fins and a short "spike" protruding from the base of the rudder.

The wings are mostly straight appendages in their overall design, only shown swept along the leading edge, while remaining mostly straight at the trailing edge. These components will be required to support all types of ammunition options across multiple underwing hardpoints.

Interestingly, the Su-25 uses a unique wingtip mounted airbrake system consisting of upper and lower panel sections hinged to the front of the wing. When activated, the panels pop open to quickly reduce the speed of the aircraft as needed. The aircraft's engines also have unique design qualities, and in extreme cases they can run on standard aviation fuel, as well as diesel, gasoline and kerosene. Since the aircraft also had to operate from hostile airfields, bringing the Su-25 to an external maintenance equipment pod that could be taken from one base to another alone proved to be a good vision.

Therefore, maintenance of the aircraft can be carried out without a full service facility. The landing gear consists of two single-wheel main landing gear legs and a single-wheel front leg, all of which are retractable into the design to complete the aircraft's aerodynamically refined shape.

Su-25 Standard stationary armament with 1 x 30mm GSh-30-2 internal cannon with 250 rounds of ammunition. There are 11 under-wing and under-body stations in total for carrying up to 9,700 pounds of external ammunition. Ammunition options include short-range air-to-air missiles, laser-guided bombs, rocket pods, gun pods, guided air-to-surface missiles, cluster bombs, and conventionally thrown bombs.

At least two mount points are provided for external fuel storage.

The Su-25 had extensive combat service in the Soviet-Afghanistan engagement, and its close support capability could go through its paces. Theatrical use resulted in beneficial upgrades and modifications to the base Su-25, improving the type overall.

As Mujahideen began to rely more on US shoulder-fired Stinger surface-to-air missiles, the Su-25 received special survivability measures such as IR suppressors on engine exhaust rings and onboard chaff/flares Distributor to interfere with ground radar tracking and homing missile signals. The first Su-25 arrived in theaters in May 1981, and a total of about 50 Su-25 aircraft were used during the war. The aircraft ultimately performed well, enduring heavy mission loads for several years.

The lack of progress in the conflict culminated in the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989 after nine years of bloody fighting.

The Su-25 found many admirers in the warring world. Non-Soviet/Russian operators include Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Chad, Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Gambia, Iran, Iraq, Cote d'Ivoire, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, North Korea , Peru, Slovakia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

During the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, Iran and Iraq fought one of the bloodiest wars of the 1980s. Iraq invaded Iran under the pretext of preserving Islam and used its recently acquired Soviet Su-25 stockpile until the end of the conflict. Iraqi Air Force planes conducted hundreds of sorties against Iranian positions, including one Su-25 from Iranian air defenses.

Ironically, during the 1991 Gulf War, at least seven Su-25s escaped coalition airstrikes on Iran and were seized by Iranian authorities. Two more Su-25s were shot down by coalition fighter jets after being attacked by advanced F-15 Eagles.

After the fall of the Soviet Empire in 1991, the Russian Air Force kept the Su-25 in service, especially in the difficult years after the defense budget was cut. This is important for the aircraft production line during the Russian war of the new decade. Chechnya has long been a thorn in the side of Russian authorities due to persistent separatist actions, culminating in the "First Chechen War" in 1994, a conflict that would last until 1996.

The Su-25s were deployed against seemingly outnumbered Chechen forces, who engaged in effective guerrilla-style ground operations. Although the Russian Air Force achieved air superiority, the war ended with the withdrawal of Russian troops from the area, with Chechen separatists (backed by foreign fighters, mainly mujahideen) claiming victory.

The war proved very unpopular on the Russian front (popular support dwindled), while Russian military morale was at a new low (after the fall of the superpower). Ultimately, this forced the Russians to declare a truce. At least four Su-25 aircraft were killed in the clashes.

A renewed outbreak of tensions with Chechnya was inevitable, and this was the basis of the "Second Chechen War", another modern phase of the Su-25 aircraft. The war lasted from 1999 to 2009, this time leading to an undisputed victory for Russia. The war began in response to the Islamic International Peace Brigade's invasion of Dagestan in the North Caucasus. Although seven aircraft were killed in combat, the Su-25 was well armed and successfully used in its defined low-altitude attack mission.

In addition, the Su-25 was much more involved in the second conflict than in the previous war.

The last reported operational use of the Russian Su-25 was in the South Ossetia war against Georgia in 2008. Russian troops invaded on August 5 to support the separatist governments in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In response, Georgian troops launched an attack on 7 August.

With both sides maintaining stable Su-25 aircraft, the system worked for both sides in the war. The Russian Air Force ensured that the Su-25 production facility in Tbilisi was destroyed and eventually seized three Su-25s from the Georgian Air Force while losing as many as four of its own Su-25 air defense systems.

The Georgian Su-25 maintained a slight technological advantage throughout the conflict, equipped with modern electronics and night-capable equipment from Israel, capable of striking successfully in any weather and day and night conditions.

Like other military aircraft, the Su-25 has produced quite a few variants. Following traditional Soviet naming conventions, the early version was referred to simply as "Su-25" and an export-oriented derivative under the designation Su-25K (both recognized by NATO as "Frogfoot-A"). The export model is a simplified Soviet form designed to keep sensitive equipment within the Soviet Union and reduce procurement costs for buyers. 582 Su-25 aircraft were produced from 1978 to 1989, with an additional 180 Su-25K variants added from 1984 to 1989.

The improved mount stems from the "Su-25SM" program, which saw extensive modernization of the cockpit, including a multi-function display (MFD), an improved HUD (head-up display) and wider support for new weapons. The Su-25SM is an ongoing modernization program (since 2012) and Russia expects to upgrade some 80 of its aircraft to the Su-25SM standard over the next few years to keep them operational until 2020.