Russia’s Su-25 “Flying Tank” vs. US Air Force A-10 Warthog

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) U.S. ground troops caught under enemy fire over the past several decades of battle have cultivated and regularly expressed an unparalleled love, reverence, and appreciation for the life-saving A-10, an aircraft known as a “flying tank.”

Those U.S. soldiers and servicemembers saved by the A-10 will likely be quick to tell you the Warthog has no equivalent anywhere in the world.

Russia Has an A-10 Equivalent

What about Russia?

Does their Air Force have a “flying tank” equivalent? Seems unlikely, yet the Soviet-era Su-25 is a combat-tested workhorse with a long history of supporting ground troops in military conflict.

First emerging in 1975, the Sukhoi Su-25 is a single-seat, twin-engine jet designed to provide close air support; the aircraft therefore not surprisingly spent many years attacking the Afghan Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war and also supported Russian forces in the war in Chechnya.

Su-25s, called Frogfoot by the West, have also been widely exported and served in support of the Macedonian and Iraqi Air Forces as well as with a number of former Soviet republics such as Georgia, which broke off when the Soviet Union collapsed.

An article in Military-Today says the c has been exported to Angola, Bulgaria, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Czech Republic, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Macedonia, North Korea, Peru, Slovakia, Sudan, and possibly some other countries.