Posted on 04/28/2016 1:41:01 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
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 troops before the end of this year.”
The modernized Su-25SM3 incorporates a host of sensor and defensive systems upgrades that the Russian military hopes will enable the flying tank to operate over the modern battlefield. Central to the modernization package is the Vitebsk defensive avionics suite, which was developed by the Samara Research Institute.
The Vitebsk incorporates a radar warning receiver, ultraviolet missile warning system and a powerful jamming suite. According to sources cited by Izvestia, the defensive countermeasures suite incorporates not only a radar jammer, but also a system to blind infrared-guided missiles—similar to the Northrop Grumman Common Infrared Countermeasures suite—in addition to flares. The system is designed to protect the Su-25SM3 from everything from man-portable Stinger missiles to Patriot missile batteries.
According to Izvestia, the Vitebsk is also designed to automatically identify and precisely geo-locate threat emitters. Those coordinates can then be passed onto a weapon system such as a Kh-58 anti-radiation missile to eliminate the threat. Potentially, that could give the modernized Frogfoot some ability to perform the suppression of enemy air defenses mission if needed.
The Su-25SM3’s offensive capabilities are also being enhanced. The Russians are equipping the warplane with a new electro-optical targeting system called the SALT-25. The new new sensor will allow the Su-35SM3 pilot to detect and track enemy ground forces at a range of “several kilometers”—day or night even during rain and snow storms. According, to Izvestia, the Russians seem to have incorporated a real-time video downlink capability on the Su-25SM3—giving the jet capability similar to the Pentagon’s ROVER system found on most upgraded U.S. fourth-generation fighters.
The modernized jet will also carry a host of new armaments—including a new generation of Russian precision-guided weapons. Among those new weapons is the RBC SPBE 500-D—which was recently used in Syria onboard Russia’s Su-24 Fencer supersonic bombers. The weapons is a standard Russian 500Kg cluster bomb fitted with smart SPBE-D submunitions. Each submunition is an infrared-guided, anti-tank bomblet fitted with an explosively formed penetrator warhead that is capable of punching through 150-160mm of rolled homogenous armor—or enough to punch through the roof of a tank. Each RBC SPBE 500-D is fitted with six SPBE-D submunitions.
Thus, the Soviet-era Frogfoot is likely to serve well into the 21st Century even while its American counterpart, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Warthog, is phased out of U.S. Air Force service by 2022.
let’s break it down easier. f35 half a trillion and counting.
president who is terrified of everything unless it’s gays in women’s bathrooms.
our ob is to save hte republic for six more months till election day.
and if we lose, take it from there
Always love your posts, knarf.
So much in just a few statements ... yup, yup, yeppers and thanx
like your home page and the dirty kid analogy.
a little harsher one i know..”you dance with the devil, you dont change the devil.”
Frogfoot?
So Russia is upgrading the Frogfoot while nasty bodily orrifces in the Pentagon have special interest checks ready to be sent with no upgrades. So much for the troops on the ground once again.
The F-35B replacement for the Marine’s AV-8B Harrier jump jet is s step backward from the proved Harrier design. In short, the F-35 is an over engineered, hideously expensive, and wrong solution to three very different needs by the USAF, USN, and USMC.
Got a big thrill yesterday when an A-10 flew right over me as I got in the car.
I have no idea what it was doing here as Jacksonville is a Navy town.
Interestingly enough, my kid’s school mascot is an A-10 Thunderbolt, but that comes from the name of an old race track the school was built over.
With insane pork-pie spending like the F-35, I guess it is only to be expected that the helmet for the F-35 pilot has a cost of $400,000. And the helmet doesn't work right either! A helmet that costs more than house, and that ultimately doesn't work, is representative of out-of-control and dysfunctional spending programs. They rob both the public and the front-line military people who rely with their lives on equipment that works.
as we prepare to slaughter the Hogs...
Cool vid. That titanium armor for the pilot is impressive.
I only wanted to compare and contrast but the data in the video is impressive
I'm totally ignorant of our military capabilities, but I sometimes wonder if we DID fall far behind other nations
China got our technology from Clinton and their own espionage and they've had the money and man power to build a huge navy (I'm told) with unique, smaller sized aircraft carriers ... many little ones as opposed to our huge floating cities.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.