Su-25: Red CAS!
Operational Deployment and Initial Success
The Su-25 was first tested and subsequently operationally deployed in Afghanistan in the summer of 1981. There, individual Frogfoot flew on average 360 missions a year! In 8 years of operations in Afghanistan, Soviet Frogfoot clocked in 60,000 sorties and only sustained 23 losses, including 9 on the ground.
But it is in Syria, 34 years after first having entered service, that the Frogfoot demonstrated once again how important it was to the Russian Air Force: In the first 5.5 months of Russian operations in Syria, the RuAF flew over 9,000 sorties. That is an average of 50 to 65 sorties a day for the 32 planes initially deployed at Hmeimim. The majority of those sorties were initially flown by Su-24s and Su-25s. At the peak of the Russian intervention, the Frogfoots flew up to 3 missions a day, several days a week!
Showcase in Syria: 2017 Al Qaeda Offensive
In September the 18th 2017, Al Qaeda-affiliated militias launched an offensive that penetrated 12Km into Syrian Army controlled territory, along the frontline between the Hama and Idlib provinces. In the process, they managed to surround 29 Russian military police officers that were holding a checkpoint alongside a handful of SAA soldiers. The Russian MPs called in for help and a team of 15 Russian SF managed to get through to them before the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants managed to close the trap. They then proceeded to try and storm the checkpoint with APCs and tanks.
While the Russian commander at the Hmeimim base was trying to assemble Russian, NDF, and SAA troops to try and break through to the surrounded group of Russian and Syrian soldiers, a couple of planes were scrambled to provide the besieged Russians with fire support. The Russian commander had a variety of platforms, some of them fairly high tech, to choose from. But he needed something that could go low and slow, take a hit or two, dish out some punishment of its own and loiter over the area for a while if needed. He sent in two Su-25s. In the end, those two Frogfoot not only managed to hold the militants at bay but also helped blast a way through enemy lines for the little group to break out onboard Typhoon MRAPs and escape toward friendly positions. Once again, the tough old Frogfoot had shown Moscow just how irreplaceable it was.
Full article here: https://defensionem.com/su-25-frogfoot-red-cas/
– RBM
