National Interest: Russia's A-10 Warthog: Why the Su-25 Frogfoot Is a Flying Tank
The Su-25 Frogfoot, known as the Grach or “Rook” by Russian pilots, is one of those aircraft that may not be at the cutting edge of technology, but still has seen widespread service around the world because it offers an effective and useful solution to the need to blast targets on the ground.
As such, its obvious stablemate is the American A-10 Thunderbolt II attack plane. But while the U.S. Air Force wants to retire the A-10 starting in 2022, the Su-25 is undergoing extensive upgrades to keep with the times.
Also unlike the Thunderbolt, it has been disseminated it all over the world and seen action in over a dozen wars, including in the air campaigns over Syria, Iraq and Ukraine.
Not only has Russia had a lot of experience flying Su-25s in combat—it has shot several down as well.
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WNU Editor: The U.S. Air Force wants to get rid of their A-10s, the Russian Air Force wants to expand theirs. Who is right?
Update: Here is another plane that the Russian Air Force is proud of .... Sukhoi Su-34 plane nicknamed ‘Duckling:’ Russian Aerospace Force’s best bomber (TASS).
3 comments:
I like the A-10, a lot. But is it that difficult to make an other "A-10" with "up to date" technology?
As to whose right, it depends on the needs of each country as the challenges they face, the srrengths they have, and their weaknesses are all different.
Russia does not face anything close to the national security threats America faces and Russia's military is currently in a better position to meet those threats than America's is. Additiinally Russia's financial position is far better tgan America's.
America's main national security threats are as follows in the order of the most dangerous. 1.) An all out nuclear attack by Russia, 2.) an attack by Islamic terrorists utlizing simultaneous dirty bombs and/or suitcase nuclesr weapons detonated simultaneously accross multiple metropolitan areas killing 10s of millions of Americans in a very short period of time and it's highly likely the attackers would take over significant areas of the country in the aftermath of the attack, and 3.) an invasion of the US mainland by Russia, China, both Russia and China, or those countries along with some combination of their allies.
In scenarios 2 and 3 it seems the A-10 could be extremely helpful in providing close air support to personnel working to retake territory from the invaders. As such, it seems misguided for American officials to be pushing for the reduction and elimination of this weapon. It seems America should be working to expand the A-10 fleet as opposed to reducing it.
As to what Russia should be doing, I don't know. I can say their accomplishments in Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria are beyond what America can do. As such, American leaders and military officials should be studying Russian military operatikns to try and learn from them and duplicate what we can.
Russia and china invade the u.s mainland? Impossible, thats just a movie script, cannot and will not happen.
Islamists killing milions with mini nukes, highly unlikley
The only threat the u.s faces is a dirty bomb that would kill hundreds and is mostly a weapon of psychological terror causing mass panic rather than a doomsday device.
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