Posted on 08/27/2016 7:24:01 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Meet the tankbuster's mean cousin from Moscow....
However, as the Afghan rebels began to acquire Stinger missiles from the United States, Su-25s began to suffer losses and the Soviet pilots were forced to fly higher to avoid the man-portable surface-to-air missiles. In all, some fifteen Su-25s were shot down in Afghanistan before the Soviet withdrawal....
While its fun to admire high-performing fighters like the MiG-29 or F-22 Raptor, the unglamorous Su-25 has so far had a greater impact on a wide range of conflicts. We can draw a few lessons from its recent combat record.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
How long until the Russian Air Force tries to kill it in order to fund an aircraft they don’t really need?
They take a licking and keep on ticking...
Where else can you find a rifle that can double as a paddle, a club, a tent pole and an entrenching tool and then go back to being a rifle without missing a beat?
I had a lapse of internet mania there.
Keep a linking. Really.
It is missing a ton of the A10 features for close air support
US planes like Swiss watch, drop watch-watch stop.
Turn the CAS mission over to the USMC. (The Army is still stuck with the Key West Agreement)
Higher order thinking, as per your example, is best left to the pros!
To help the Ruskies along, I suggest we send them our very best, 435 congressmen and 100 senators. And they can keep them!
Yes, we would do this in the name of Whorled Peas and the children!
They wish.
The gun isn’t nearly as accurate or powerful as the A-10.
IN addition, engine performance was crap and unreliable.
>Actually I think the A-10 was specifically designed by the tank busting role, while the Su-25 was developed for close air support, thought there is a tank buster version.
There’s a lot of debate about that. Lots of people think they sold the A-10 as a tank killer because the airforce wouldn’t have gone for a strictly CAS plane. Even in the 80s the A10 wouldn’t have done all that well against Russian MANPADs and SAMs when attacking tank formations. In the first Iraq war the A10 did poorly in anti-tank strike missions, so I tend to believe the plane was designed to be CAS and they talked it up as a tank killer to get the airforce on board.
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