WTF!!! Shocked
Before the Su-25 the last aircraft they used in the CAS role was the Il-10.
Combat air support in the 70s and since would have been provided by their swing fighters... high speed fighters that would deliver bombs after they had cleared the skies of enemy fighters like the MiG-21 and the dedicated attack aircraft like the Su-7... it was found that slower aircraft like the older obsolete fighters were better for this mission... the MiG-15s were better than the newer faster aircraft, so the Su-25 was developed... but in the mean time the Su-17 evolved from the Su-7 as a pure light strike attack aircraft and the MiG-23 split into the ground attack specialised MiG-27 to hit targets holding up the ground forces.
They were not particularly good at the job, hense in Afghanistan they used MiG-27s and Su-17s to bomb targets, but they also tested Su-25s and even Yak-38s and it was shown the Su-25 was an excellent aircraft for the job.
Su-17 and MiG-27 were removed from the gene pool because they were single engined aircraft... the arrival of the Su-25 would not have replaced them, but they would have stopped providing direct close air support and kept their light strike roles... allowing MiG-21s and MiG-23s to be fighters.
Do you have any source to corroborate that story or is it entirely your imagination?
The light and heavy 5th gen programmes were originally running in parallel, but the light 5th gen fighter programme stopped and it was mentioned several times that the light fighter was put on hold while they focussed on the heavier fighter and that work would resume on the light fighter after the heavier fighter was in serial production... well the heavier fighter programme is in serial production... and all of a sudden we hear about Checkmate.... after all these years of silence about light 5th gen fighters.
Or has the light 5th gen fighter project been running normally and fully funded all this time and it was kept completely secret... makes you wonder what the light Sukhoi fighter is so far behind the medium Sukhoi fighter with all their money and power and resources... they haven't even had a first flight... what is their excuse for the delay?
It is a shame to see MiG in such shape as it is now, but it is, mostly, by their own doing.
Yeah, everyone blames MiG for its situation because obviously MiG is responsible for the end of the cold war and sudden mass loss of customers in Eastern Europe and the fact that the Russian AF thought they could protect the largest country on earth with Flankers only and everything would be fine.
The concept of having MiG-29s and Su-27s was not because they had too much money and didn't know what else to spend it on... having a mix of fighter types actually makes economic and military sense.
Their last presentation with toy models of their "projects" was nothing but shameful.
It wont be for export, it is for the Russian AF first and foremost so they have no obligation to show the world where they are at.
And the models looked just fine to me. The carrier model looked rather good and they have a single engined small land based fighter design with a twinned UAV support drone of their own design too... sounds like despite not getting the funding and attention Sukhoi gets they are working hard.
Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir PutinPutin said on May 18 that serial production of the Su-75 Checkmate will begin in 2027.
Look forward to the usual suspects crying like the sky has fallen because serial production does not start till 2028 because they had to make some changes or something happens the year before that delays it...
Maybe Iran was looking for some the other day?
Would love to see Iran making these...
![Smile](https://2img.net/i/fa/i/smiles/icon_smile.gif)
Iran must be indeed salivating at the prospect of getting a 5G plane with the practical capacities of a Su-30 for that kind of money... it is a bargain
Its internal weapons capacity will be nothing like the weapon capacity and flight range of the Su-30, but otherwise I would agree... this is a very capable looking aircraft... and it appears to be everything the F-35 was supposed to be... stealthy, state of the art, and cheaper to operate... of course the F-35 was ruined by various factors... mostly the greedy MIC the US has.