Hi can anyone confirm whats actually been delivered as i believe that 5x SU-25 frogfoots were delivered, but i have seen people and press mentioning 10x SU-24 fencers but then pictures of SU-25, can anyone confirm? i thought they received SU-25's or are they receivng both?
I would suspect they will be happy to show Su-25s because their availability will likely severely change ISIS tactics and they will only move big columns and large forces at night.
With Su-24s however these are more likely to use intel information and night attacks with precision weapons to strike ISIS HQs inside captured towns and cities... a UAV with electronic sensors that can detect radio transmissions should be able to locate such areas fairly quickly just by flying very high and listening.
Su-25s are what they need right now to stop the pace of the ISIS advance and to support Iraqi ground forces fighting ISIS... the sooner they can get them airborne and operational the better so Russian advisor pilots are likely... some flight training equipment and some more aircraft... especially two seaters, which the Russian factory was the original producer should help with training and also the problem because the two seater is fully operational too.
Iraq are in so much need of air support right now and USA dragging there feet with the F-16's ordered, maybe Iraq is better looking to Russian for aircraft long term,
In the long term good relations with both Russia and the US is in Iraqs interests... of course helping Iraq fight the beast the US created this time around wont be an urgent priority in Washington, but I suspect it will be CAS aircraft and Strike aircraft that will be the most useful right now.
I think at this rate Iraq maybe take up the option that was given to them to buy addtional Lasta-95 there extremely cheap to buy(compaired to beechcraft texan T6) and very cheap to operate.
Used as sort of manned armed drones to allow the Iraqi Air Force have eyes and weapons in more places at once fairly cheaply then it makes a lot of sense... especially with cheap simple ordinance.
The air force commander says Former Iraqi SU-25 pilots will fly them.
For a pilot I suspect the Su-25 is fairly straight forward to fly and operate... as long as those pilots have been flying something in the last 12 years it would not take a huge amount of time to get them back up to speed IMHO.
However it might very well be that Russian mercenary pilots will fly them which I prefer, if it's Iraqi pilots who have not flown for 10 years their skills are pretty much deteriorated.
Is there any word on two seaters being included?
I suspect advisor pilots might get the aircraft into action ASAP, but it would not be impossible for Iraqi pilots to be flying them in combat within a week or two.
So far there are only 5x Su-25s confirmed. They are using Russian technical assistants, in addition to some iraqi pilots and ground crews who've been "preparing" for the type with refresher training for the last month or so. The Iraqi pilots who will fly it are from the "old" air force, so the last time they actually flew SU-25s was more than 11 years ago!
Well... if there are Iraqi pilots who have been in training then they should be fine...
We can assume those SU-25's are the basic version, it can't fire guided missiles, just unguided bombs and rockets ?
From the photo above the optical port in the nose is a laser target marker/lased target tracking/laser range finder system. It is able to carry and use laser guided rockets, AS-10 (Kh-25ML) and AS-14 (Kh-29L) and a few other types should be standard.
A fairly modest upgrade to SM standard would add a wide range of guided options and improve the performance of unguided weapons delivery.
Home
Latest images
Register
Log in
