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Russia is losing another “workhorse”: the Su-25. The fighter aircraft plays a major role in the Ukraine war – on both sides.
Khortytsia – “Another enemy Su-25 fighter jet burns in the steppes of the Ukrainian Donbass,” the report triumphantly reports. The Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reported that its air defenses had apparently scored another hit against Vladimir Putin’s flying armada.
A Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft is said to have been hit and destroyed by a projectile from an anti-aircraft gun. In the video cited as evidence from near the island of Khortytsia near Zaporizhia, a massive shot can be heard, accompanied by smoke like from a muzzle. According to this, the war in Ukraine may actually have cost Russia another fighter aircraft.
So far, around 100 Russian fighter planes are said to be out of action, according to estimates from various media outlets. A debacle for Putin’s invasion army: “You can twist and turn it however you like: the Sukhoi Su-25 is the epitome of a fighter plane,” writes the magazine Flight ReviewAccording to the report, the ground attack aircraft is involved on both sides. The Su-25 may even form the backbone of the ground-based “special operation”, according to the Russian news agency Cup in May last year. Russia’s arms manufacturer Rostec then began planning to increase its combat value by further developing the aircraft’s armament – even though the basic model is already more than 40 years old.
Classic car “reloaded”: Belarus plans to reissue Putin’s “workhorse”
“It is worth noting that the effectiveness of the latest modification of the Su-25SM3 has been significantly increased; the aircraft can also use high-precision weapons. We will continue to improve this machine, taking into account the experience gained in the North-West,” Vladimir Artyakov told the CupThe aircraft is designed to support ground units and destroy objects with specified coordinates around the clock and in any weather, stressed the Deputy General Director of Rostec, referring – at the time a year after the attack – to the experience gained from the fighting in Ukraine.
“The silhouette of the ‘flying tank’ will not disappear from the sky any time soon – even in the absence of suitable alternatives.”
In addition to massive on-board guns and unguided rockets, the standard armament of the attack aircraft now consists primarily of glide bombs, which are currently causing Ukraine immense problems – including in the Russian offensive against Kharkiv. The SU-25 is said to be able to carry KAB-500 and KAB-1500 glide bombs. In this respect, the current development on the Ukrainian battlefield is also worrying for NATO. Russia is not only planning to modernize the models that entered service in 1981 – planning for the new construction of this type had already begun after the end of the first year of the war.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has shown himself to be a dutiful partner: “As the government told me, they are ready to produce the Su-25, which has proven itself in Ukraine, a combat aircraft, a workhorse. We are even ready to produce it in Belarus if the Russian Federation provides a little technological support,” the news agency quoted him as saying. BeltaWhat is remarkable is that Belarus has never built aircraft.
“Frog foot” on both sides: Ukraine also used the aircraft – against Luhansk
“Frogfoot” is the name of the aircraft in NATO jargon, and the star had already praised it shortly after the war began as “outdated but almost indestructible”. But this praise seems misplaced: Depending on the source, Russia is said to have lost up to 31 of its “workhorses”, while Ukraine has lost an estimated 19, although technical defects may have played a role alongside alleged shoot-downs. For example, North Macedonia had given Ukraine four unfit Su-25s – possibly just for dismantling. According to the statistics website Oryx Ukraine had also taken over 14 Su-25s from Bulgaria; these had been bought for Ukraine by other NATO partners
During the first clashes over the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine is said to have used the Su-25 against the city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, which is held by pro-Russian separatists – with eight civilians killed by unguided rockets and large-caliber ammunition: “The bloodbath came suddenly and unexpectedly. It happened in the middle of the city, in a building next to a green square where civilians were walking and working. Eight people were killed, five women and three men, according to the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic; the authorities in Kiev reported the same number,” as CNN reported. The main role was supposedly played by the “frog feet”.
Prelude to escalation: Russia shoots down Ukrainian Su-25 ten years ago
They were apparently the prelude to what would escalate ten years later: “This is probably the first time that civilians have been killed or injured in a Ukrainian air force attack since pro-Russian groups began occupying buildings in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions more than two months ago,” reported CNN The American news channel wanted a ballistics expert to identify the size and pattern of the bullet holes as 30-millimeter ammunition, “which is standard equipment on the Su-25 and Su-27 ground attack aircraft – both Ukrainian combat aircraft,” as CNN carried out.
A Su-25 was also the first high-speed combat aircraft that the Ukrainian Air Force lost due to Russian fire – the incident dates back to July 16, 2014, as the blog Airheadsfly documented. Airheadsfly lists five more Ukrainian Su-25s killed in 2014 alone. The blog assumed that the Ukrainian fleet had up to 36 aircraft of this type in 2014. According to the database FlightGlobal Russia will have 176 Su-25s in 2024. Other sources speak of up to 200 machines of different modifications.
Putin’s clumsy technology: navigation by map, sight and adhesive film
In 2017, the Defense And Security Monitor about Russian announcements to stop production of the type completely. The aircraft had been in service since 1981 with a production run of around 1,000 – the first flight had already taken place in the mid-1970s. The machines seem to continue the tradition of simple but almost indestructible Russian military technology, as starAuthor Gernot Kramper reports: “The Russian jets became famous when it became known that the pilots had to carry out their missions without a navigation system and had to fly to their targets using maps and sight. It was only through crowdfunding at home that they were able to get civilian outdoor navigation systems. These were then attached to the cockpit with adhesive film.”
Ukraine’s cannon-based air defense is also largely outdated; the guns mainly come from the Soviet Army’s stocks. Ukraine also fires from German and British guns. For example, Ukraine uses the 23 mm rifled SU-23 anti-aircraft gun and the 57 mm S-60 anti-aircraft gun – both systems are Russian-made. The stationary KDG revolver cannon and the Skynex system, which mainly operates from trucks, come from Germany; both come from Rheinmetall. The United Kingdom most recently supplied the stationary Terrahawk Paladin system.
The Telegram-Video of the alleged shooting down shows an overhang of branches on which the plane can be seen rushing past, crossing a wide landscape – in this respect, the anti-aircraft gun should have been a towed model hidden under a tree; this would mean that Vladimir Putin may have been beaten with his own weapons. Flight ReviewEditor Patrick Zwerger had predicted a heavenly future for the type in the Russian army: “The silhouette of the ‘flying tank’ will not disappear from the sky any time soon – even in the absence of suitable alternatives.”
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