Sukhoi Su-25 Grach

The Sukhoi Su-25 Grach (Rook), (NATO reporting name: Frogfoot) is a single-seat, twin-engine turbojet armoured close air support aircraft. The maiden flight took place on February 22, 1975, entering service on July 19, 1981, and remains in service today. A two-seat trainer variant, the Su-35UB (Frogfoot-B) appeared in 1985. The type has undergone modification and improvements during its service life.

Exported to serval countries, it has seen combat in numerous conflicts including the Soviet war in Afghanistan, with Iraqi during the 1980–88 Iran–Iraq War and recently the Russian intervention in the Syrian Civil War.

Airframe construction is mainly of aluminium alloy with some steel, titanium and magnesium alloy. The fuselage is semi-monocoque design with a cantilevered, trapezoidal shape, shoulder-mounted wing and traditional swept-back tail unit.

A single-seat cockpit uses analogue flight instruments and is protected by a 24mm thick titanium alloy armoured bathtub-shaped enclosure with a bulletproof windscreen. A periscope fitted to the canopy supplements the pilot’s limited rear vision. The undercarriage is a retractable tricycle type.

It uses two Tumansky R-95, later the after-burning R-195, axial-flow turbojets, housed on the fuselage sides under the wings separated with armour plating. The Su-25 a maximum speed of 606 km/h (975 mph), a service ceiling of 7,000 m (23,00 ft) and range of 1,000 km (621 mi).

Armament consists of a single 30 mm Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-30-2 autocannon beneath the cockpit, five external hard-points under each wing, able to carry up to 4,040 kgs (9,700 lbs) of stores. Ordnance included gun pods, air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, unguided rockets, guided or unguided bombs and drop tanks.