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Belenko had been a respected pilot with the Soviet Air Defence Forces. But by 1976, he wanted to leave the Soviet Union. At the time, he was based near Vladivostok, as part of the 513th Fighter Regiment, 11th Air Army. The unit lived at Chuguyevka Airbase. It’s worth noting that the Soviet Air Defence Forces were a separate aerial branch from the Soviet Air Force, and that its members were an elite and trusted band. As such, Belenko, too, would be trusted. So much so, that when his blood pressure was elevated on the morning he planned to escape, the...

A pilot of a Russian Su-25 Frogfoot close air support jet recorded his own ejection in dramatic headcam footage. The aircraft was supposedly brought down by Ukrainian fire this summer. The video originated from the Russian Fighter-Bomber Telegram channel. https://youtu.be/qkT7Q5EHOAc The Frogfoot pilot was flying just hundreds of feet off the deck when the aircraft was supposedly hit. In the video, the jet pitches up violently as it departs from controlled flight and the ejection sequence is activated. As the pilot rockets away from the aircraft in its Zvezda K-36 ejection seat, we get a glimpse of its tail. Its...

A Russian Su-25 fighter jet has crashed immediately after take-off in Crimea, emitting a huge fireball as Putin's botched invasion of Ukraine continues to suffer huge losses. On Sunday morning, the jet, which costs an estimated £9.5million, tried to take off alongside another aircraft at a strip on the Crimean peninsula. After lifting off from the runway, it veered sharply towards the left and then plummeted towards the ground, emitting a huge cloud of black smoke. After it smashed into the ground, a huge fireball erupted at the Crimean airfield in the latest blow to Putin The Ukrainian Ministry of...

Ukrainian fighters were overjoyed after they blew up one of Russia's deadly vacuum bomb launchers in an enormous explosion. Vladimir Putin's war effort was once again damaged as Volodymyr Zelensky's troops destroyed another piece of Moscow's military equipment. The Ukrainian 80th Air Assault Brigade hit a TZM-T (TOS-1 reloading vehicle) with a Stugna-P ATGM, a Ukrainian anti-tank guided missile. Footage shows missiles being fired at a Russian TOS-1 launcher on the side of a hill before the thermobaric missile launcher explodes with a massive ball of fire and thick smoke.

A Su-25 jet of the Armenian Air Force was shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter in the airspace of the Republic of Armenia, Spokesperson for the Armenian Defense Ministry Shushan Stepanyan informs. F-16 fighter jets belonging to the Air Force of the Republic of Turkey took off from Ganja Airport of the Republic of Azerbaijan at 10:30 am today and were assisting SU-25 fighters and Turkish-made Bayraktar UAVs in the missile strikes on Vardenis, Mets Masrik, Sotk regions of the Vardenis region of Armenia. During this period, the air defense units were performing fire support tasks for the air...

Last night the world was close to a military confrontation between two nuclear powers, Russia and the U.S. In an incredibly dangerous incident in the skies over Syria, an American F-22, which is called a stealth fighter, fired what we now know to be warning flares at our attack aircraft Su-25 at close range.

A Russian pilot was killed Saturday after his warplane went down over Syria's northwest province of Idlib and he clashed with Islamists on the ground, Russia's defence ministry and a monitor said. "The pilot was killed as he fought Islamist rebels who had shot down his plane and were taking him captive," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman. According to the British-based monitor, the Sukhoi 25 was shot down over the town of Maasran in Idlib and the pilot came down in a parachute.

A Russian warplane was shot down Saturday in Syria, according to Russian state-run news agencies. The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed one of its Su-25 warplanes was downed in Idlib province in northwest Syria, state media outlet RIA Novosti reported. Militants shot down the plane in an area controlled by al-Nusra Front fighters, according to the RIA Novosti report. Russia and Turkey, which is responsible for a de-escalation zone in Idlib, were taking measures to return the pilot's body, the defense ministry said. The ministry said more than 30 militants in the area were killed in a retaliatory strike, according...

A pair of U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters fired flares to chase two Russian Su-25 fighter jets out of restricted airspace over Syria on Wednesday, a Pentagon official confirmed Thursday. The aerial encounter occurred when the Russian jets strayed into airspace east of the Euphrates River, putting them on the wrong side of a "deconfliction zone" established between Moscow and Washington to avoid confrontation in the skies over Syria. The Russian jets immediately left the area after the intercept and warning flares from the F-22s, an official confirmed to the Washington Examiner. The Pentagon could not provide an...

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 it’s 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.

The Russian air force is set to begin operational testing of its upgraded Sukhoi Su-25SM3 Frogfoot close air support aircraft this April. Assuming the modernized jets are approved for fielding, the first operational Su-25SM3 aircraft are expected to enter service before the end of the year. The Russian air force is expected to upgrade more than forty Su-25s at the 121th Aircraft Repair Plant in Kubinka—just outside Moscow. “Comprehensive testing of Su-25SM3 will begin in April of this year,” a Russian Aerospace Forces official told the Russian-language daily Izvestia. “We expect that the first modernized attack aircraft will arrive in...

Russian Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot ground-attack planes perform during the Aviadarts military aviation competition at the Dubrovichi range near Ryazan, Russia, August 2, 2015. As the Syrian military begins its push to take back opposition-held areas in northwestern Syria, Russia has provided backing through an intensifying aerial campaign. Among the planes Moscow has used to back the Syrian military's attempted advance is a Russian combat aircraft that some have compared to the US's venerated A-10 Warthog. The Russian Su-25 Frogfoot is a low-flying tank-like plane that specializes in providing aerial cover and attacking ground targets. The Frogfoot is a sturdy plane,...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia called on Friday for Washington to restart direct military-to-military cooperation to avert "unintended incidents" near Syria, at a time when U.S. officials say Moscow is building up forces to protect President Bashar al-Assad's government. The United States is leading a campaign of air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syrian air space, and a greater Russian presence would raise the prospect of the Cold War superpower foes encountering each other on the battlefield. Both Moscow and Washington say their enemy is Islamic State. But Russia supports the government of Assad, while the United States says his...

Forty years ago, an attack aircraft Su-25 (GrachRook) took off from an airfield in Moscow suburb Kubinka for its maiden flight. Time has not dimmed its lustre. This aircraft remains a fearsome fighting machine, and can be called the future of Russian attack aviation. At the beginning of 2015, there were 14 air assault squadrons, composed of 150 Su-25; 60 Su-25SM; 52 Su-25SM2 /SM3; and 15 Su-25UB. Of all these storm-troopers 80 more machines will be upgraded to the SM version by 2020. About 100 more of this type of aircraft are parked at the long-term storage bases. Shock and...

Photos have appears on Iraqi social media depicting Russian-made rocket artillery arriving in Baghdad. The snapshots, published on July 25, show TOS-1A systems unloading from giant An-124 cargo planes. The rockets could help Baghdad battle Islamic militants. TOS-1 was the Soviet army’s secret hammer during the last decade of the Cold War. It fires powerful rockets to smash enemy trenches, fortifications and buildings, cracking defensive lines to allow tanks and infantry to punch through.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in Damascus on Saturday that his country “will not remain passive” as jihadists push an offensive in Syria’s neighbor Iraq. “Russia will not remain passive to the attempts by some groups to spread terrorism in the region,” Ryabkov told journalists after meeting with President Bashar al-Assad. Sunni militants, led by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which is active in both Syria and Iraq, have seized vast territory north and west of Baghdad since launching their offensive two weeks ago.

As BBC reports, citing Maliki, "Jets from Russia and Belarus will hopefully make a key difference in the fight against ISIS in Iraq." He expressed regrets over Iraq's contract with the US, saying their "jets are taking too long to arrive." "God willing within one week this force will be effective and will destroy the terrorists' dens," he told BBC Arabic.

U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State positions have begun. Fighter jets also bombed Islamic State militants in northwest Iraq on Thursday night. But it's not clear who the pilots were. The Pentagon immediately denied a New York Times report that the U.S. carried out Thursday's strikes. Iraqi military officials told CNN and the Wall Street Journal that the Iraqi Air Force had struck ISIS targets near Erbil, which is the regional capital of Iraqi Kurdistan and host to hundreds of U.S. military advisers. The Iraqi Air Force is poorly equipped, consisting of several Cessna planes carrying American-supplied Hellfire missiles, some American-...

BAGHDAD // Iraq said it received the first batch of Sukhoi warplanes from Russia as it pressed a counter-attack Sunday against Sunni militants whose offensive threatens to tear the country apart. The arrival of the fighter jets comes with Iraqi forces, backed by aerial cover, pushing to retake the militant-held city of Tikrit and world leaders urging a speeding up of government formation following elections in April. The Su-25 ground attack jets are expected to be pressed into service as soon as possible, bolstering Iraq’s air power as it combats a sweeping offensive by militants, led by the Islamic State...

Russia may not have boots on the ground in Iraq—yet. But it will have them in the sky; Russian pilots could be flying over Iraq within days. While the Obama administration struggles to speed up delivery of U.S. military assistance to the government of Iraq, Vladimir Putin has already delivered not only fighter jets but also the pilots needed to fly them, diplomatic sources told The Daily Beast. On Monday, Russian television trumpeted the arrival of the first five of 12 promised Sukhoi Su-25 combat fighter jets to the Iraqi government, saying it had also sent “trainers” to help the...