Russia Has Its Own A-10 Warthog (And It Was Meant to Be a NATO-Killer) – The National Interest Online (blog)

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. This meant flying low and slow to properly observe the battlefield and line up the plane for an attack run.

Flying low would also help the Su-25 avoid all the deadly long-rangeSAMsthat would have been active in a European battlefield. However, this would have exposed it to all kinds of antiaircraft guns. Thus, the pilot of the Su-25 benefited from an armored bathtubten to twenty-five millimeters of armor plating that wrapped around the cockpit and even padded the pilots headrest. It also had armored fuel tanks and redundant control schemes to increase the likelihood of surviving a hit. And in their extensive combat careers,Su-25shave survived somereallybadhits.

TheSu-25Frogfoot, known as theGrachor Rook by Russian pilots, is one of those aircraft that may not be at the cutting edge of technology, but still has seen widespread service around the world because it offers an effective and useful solution to the need to blast targets on the ground.

As such, its obviousstablemateis the AmericanA-10 Thunderbolt IIattack plane. But while the U.S. Air Force wants toretirethe A-10 starting in 2022, the Su-25 isundergoing extensive upgradesto keep with the times.

Also unlike the Thunderbolt, it has been disseminated it all over the world and seen action in over a dozen wars, including in the air campaigns over Syria, Iraq and Ukraine.

Not only has Russia had a lot of experience flyingSu-25sin combatit has shot several down as well.

During World War II, Russias armored Il-2Sturmovikattack planes, nicknamed Flying Tanks, were renowned for their ability to take a pounding while dishing it out to German Panzer divisions with bombs, rockets and cannon fire.

Unlike the U.S. Air Force in the1960s, which was enamored with the concept of winning nuclear wars withstrategic bombers, the Soviet air service, theVVS, placed more emphasis on supporting ground armies in its Frontal Aviation branch. However, no worthy successor to theShturmovikimmediately appeared after World War II

In 1968, the VVS service decided it was time for another properly designed flying tank. After a three-way competition, the prototype submitted by Sukhoi was selected and the first Su-25 attack planes entered production in 1978 in a factory in Tbilisi, Georgia. Coincidentally, the American A-10 Thunderbolt had begun entering service a few years earlier.

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. This meant flying low and slow to properly observe the battlefield and line up the plane for an attack run.

Flying low would also help the Su-25 avoid all the deadly long-range SAMs that would have been active in a European battlefield. However, this would have exposed it to all kinds of antiaircraft guns. Thus, the pilot of the Su-25 benefited from an armored bathtubten to twenty-five millimeters of armor plating that wrapped around the cockpit and even padded the pilots headrest. It also had armored fuel tanks and redundant control schemes to increase the likelihood of surviving a hit. And in their extensive combat careers, Su-25s have survived somereallybadhits.

Despite the similarities with the A-10, the Su-25 is a smaller and lighter, and has a maximum speed fifty percent faster than the Thunderbolts at around six hundred miles per hour. 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.

More importantly, the types of munitionsusuallycarried are typically different. The Thunderbolts mainstays are precision-guided munitions, especiallyMaverickantitank missiles, as well as its monstrous, fast-firing GAU-8 cannon.

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Russia Has Its Own A-10 Warthog (And It Was Meant to Be a NATO-Killer) - The National Interest Online (blog)