Sukhoi Su-25K Frogfoot
The American experience in Vietnam and that of the Egyptians in the Arab-Israeli Wars brought home to the Soviet Union that its current fleet of ground-attack aircraft, such as the Su-7 Fitter series and MiG-23BN Flogger, would not survive in a modern combat environment. In both Vietnam and the Sinai, low-flying aircraft had proved themselves especially vulnerable to ground fire, and with the increasing lethality of surface-to-air missiles, the Soviet Union needed an armored aircraft that could survive in this environment. Two other factors also influenced Soviet thinking: the knowledge that the United States was working on just such an aircraft (the A-10 Thunderbolt II) and that the Il-2 Shturmovik, which had proven so valuable to the Soviet war effort in World War II, had never truly been replaced.
Unusually for the Soviet Union, the requirement for an armored ground-attack fighter was made a competition between the design bureaus then in operation. It came down to a competition between Sukhoi’s T-8 design and Ilyushin’s Il-102, which was essentially a jet-powered Il-2 (complete with rear gunner); the T-8, which showed more than a little inspiration from the Northrop A-9 (which had been the loser of the competition with the A-10), won the competition in 1975. Development was relatively smooth—to be expected from an aircraft that was meant to be simple to maintain and operate in forward areas, and had no “new” technology involved—and the first Su-25 regiment was operational by May 1981.
Like the A-10, survivalbility was paramount in the design. The twin engines were spaced far apart to avoid losing both to a single hit, though the Su-25 differed from its Western counterpart in having a single tail and engines set low in the fuselage. It also differed by not being designed around its gun armament: though the Su-25 was equipped with a powerful 30mm cannon, its main armament would be conventional rockets and bombs, carried on no less than ten hardpoints. Like the A-10, the pilot sat in a thickly armored titanium “bathtub,” though with much less visibility; Su-25 pilots complained of the nonexistent visibility to the rear and not much better vision to the front. A laser designator was mounted in the nose rather than radar.
The Su-25 was committed to combat immediately, as it was desperately needed in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Despite never having more than fifty Su-25s at any one time in theater, these regiments flew twice as many sorties as any other Soviet unit, using a combination of rockets, bombs, and guided missiles against mujahedeen positions. Losses were also comparatively low, as the Su-25 could absorb damage from the light weapons used by the Afghanis; only when American-supplied Stinger missiles reached the mujahedeen did the Su-25 face a genuine ground threat, and its loss rate was still much lower than the catastrophic losses taken by Mi-24 helicopter gunship crews. This reliability and ability to carry large amounts of ordnance earned it the nickname “Rook” and “Comb” (due to the plethora of hardpoints) from grateful Soviet ground troops. NATO gave it the reporting name of Frogfoot. The Su-25 had proved its worth, and units were given the revived designation of Shturmovik.
Production continued, and the 1990s were to see the Su-25 used in many of the small “brushfire” wars of the last decade of the 20th Century. Frogfoots were used by the Iraqis extensively first in the Iran-Iraq War, suffering the least amount of losses of any Iraqi type in service; their luck was not as good in the First Gulf War, where most of the Iraqi fleet was destroyed on the ground, with two also shot down in the air. Russia itself has used their Frogfoots twice, most extensively in the Chechnya Wars of the 1990s, where Su-25s took heavier losses due to outdated tactics and more sophisticated shoulder-fired missiles of the Chechen rebels; in the South Ossetian War of 2008, fought against Georgia, Su-25s fought each other.
The Su-25 remains in large numbers and has been extensively exported to 25 nations, and remains in production after over a thousand have been built. A modest upgrade is being done to Russian Su-25s, though a more extensive and ambitious upgrade, the Su-25KM Scorpion, has been done with Georgian aircraft: this upgrade uses Israeli technology and allows the Scorpion to carry Western ordnance. Like the A-10, the Su-25 has no real replacement on the horizon and will likely remain in service for some years to come.
This Su-25K is a Soviet aircraft belonging to the 200th Independent Shturmovik Regiment over Afghanistan in the 1980s. This aircraft wears standard Su-25 camouflage of two shades of green over brown uppersurfaces and light blue undersurfaces. Like most Su-25s, it carries a heavy amount of armament in the form of two Kh-29 (AS-14 Kedge) guided missiles, two UBL rocket pods, four FAB-1000 general purpose bombs, two R-60 (AA-8 Aphid) self-defense missiles, and two external fuel tanks.
Sukhoi Su-25K Frogfoot
The American experience in Vietnam and that of the Egyptians in the Arab-Israeli Wars brought home to the Soviet Union that its current fleet of ground-attack aircraft, such as the Su-7 Fitter series and MiG-23BN Flogger, would not survive in a modern combat environment. In both Vietnam and the Sinai, low-flying aircraft had proved themselves especially vulnerable to ground fire, and with the increasing lethality of surface-to-air missiles, the Soviet Union needed an armored aircraft that could survive in this environment. Two other factors also influenced Soviet thinking: the knowledge that the United States was working on just such an aircraft (the A-10 Thunderbolt II) and that the Il-2 Shturmovik, which had proven so valuable to the Soviet war effort in World War II, had never truly been replaced.
Unusually for the Soviet Union, the requirement for an armored ground-attack fighter was made a competition between the design bureaus then in operation. It came down to a competition between Sukhoi’s T-8 design and Ilyushin’s Il-102, which was essentially a jet-powered Il-2 (complete with rear gunner); the T-8, which showed more than a little inspiration from the Northrop A-9 (which had been the loser of the competition with the A-10), won the competition in 1975. Development was relatively smooth—to be expected from an aircraft that was meant to be simple to maintain and operate in forward areas, and had no “new” technology involved—and the first Su-25 regiment was operational by May 1981.
Like the A-10, survivalbility was paramount in the design. The twin engines were spaced far apart to avoid losing both to a single hit, though the Su-25 differed from its Western counterpart in having a single tail and engines set low in the fuselage. It also differed by not being designed around its gun armament: though the Su-25 was equipped with a powerful 30mm cannon, its main armament would be conventional rockets and bombs, carried on no less than ten hardpoints. Like the A-10, the pilot sat in a thickly armored titanium “bathtub,” though with much less visibility; Su-25 pilots complained of the nonexistent visibility to the rear and not much better vision to the front. A laser designator was mounted in the nose rather than radar.
The Su-25 was committed to combat immediately, as it was desperately needed in the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Despite never having more than fifty Su-25s at any one time in theater, these regiments flew twice as many sorties as any other Soviet unit, using a combination of rockets, bombs, and guided missiles against mujahedeen positions. Losses were also comparatively low, as the Su-25 could absorb damage from the light weapons used by the Afghanis; only when American-supplied Stinger missiles reached the mujahedeen did the Su-25 face a genuine ground threat, and its loss rate was still much lower than the catastrophic losses taken by Mi-24 helicopter gunship crews. This reliability and ability to carry large amounts of ordnance earned it the nickname “Rook” and “Comb” (due to the plethora of hardpoints) from grateful Soviet ground troops. NATO gave it the reporting name of Frogfoot. The Su-25 had proved its worth, and units were given the revived designation of Shturmovik.
Production continued, and the 1990s were to see the Su-25 used in many of the small “brushfire” wars of the last decade of the 20th Century. Frogfoots were used by the Iraqis extensively first in the Iran-Iraq War, suffering the least amount of losses of any Iraqi type in service; their luck was not as good in the First Gulf War, where most of the Iraqi fleet was destroyed on the ground, with two also shot down in the air. Russia itself has used their Frogfoots twice, most extensively in the Chechnya Wars of the 1990s, where Su-25s took heavier losses due to outdated tactics and more sophisticated shoulder-fired missiles of the Chechen rebels; in the South Ossetian War of 2008, fought against Georgia, Su-25s fought each other.
The Su-25 remains in large numbers and has been extensively exported to 25 nations, and remains in production after over a thousand have been built. A modest upgrade is being done to Russian Su-25s, though a more extensive and ambitious upgrade, the Su-25KM Scorpion, has been done with Georgian aircraft: this upgrade uses Israeli technology and allows the Scorpion to carry Western ordnance. Like the A-10, the Su-25 has no real replacement on the horizon and will likely remain in service for some years to come.
This Su-25K is a Soviet aircraft belonging to the 200th Independent Shturmovik Regiment over Afghanistan in the 1980s. This aircraft wears standard Su-25 camouflage of two shades of green over brown uppersurfaces and light blue undersurfaces. Like most Su-25s, it carries a heavy amount of armament in the form of two Kh-29 (AS-14 Kedge) guided missiles, two UBL rocket pods, four FAB-1000 general purpose bombs, two R-60 (AA-8 Aphid) self-defense missiles, and two external fuel tanks.