Looks like the latest update to the Su-25 is starting to make it to the air units.
Not sure if it’s accurate, this video calls it the ‘Super Frogfoot’. You can see the CM racks built into the top of the fuselage on either side of the vertical stabilizer. The video takes you to a quick trip to the gun range where the pilots turn some unguided rockets loose, something the Frogfoot is very much at home doing. The article states that the entire Frogfoot fleet will be brought up to this standard, which according to Wikipedia (a highly suspect source) amounts to a little less than 200 aircraft. I can’t imagine being a combat pilot in an air arm where one aircraft might have a half-dozen variants and he or she has to be proficient in all of them.
If you think about it. The ski jump shows how effective we are at moving a smaller thing away from a bigger thing in a ferocious and barely controlled way.
Thats the way, the reuse of successful airframes, its like what happens with F16, F15, F18, Tornado, MiG-29, Su-27 (and family), … even the tank chassis are the same. The time of reinventing the wheel all the time was over.
The problem nowadays with russia mil equipment is that because modern gov laws in ru, you are not allowed to have any detailed data of modern weapons in public domain.
In soviet times everything about military was classified, after 1991 was a big breach and until few years ago you could easily access impressive details (non black market) of late cold war equipment, much more easy than ocidental equipment!
The public domain books that you could buy in a normal tech bookshop in moscow had books about weapons that goes to the rivet detail, including performance, engineer formulas and diagrams, etc etc etc, much more detailed than any usa weapon public book. Now its reversing completely.
DCS devs because live in ru, they have big big problems to even do semi detailed 90s russian equipment because ru laws, about modern equipment so not even on dreams.
In 2050, when Putin finally is no longer in charge, we will get DCS: Flanker modeled to 1991 accuracy!
To be fair, though, try finding out everything the SR-71 could do. The thing has been effectively retired for 30 years and they still won’t let it all out.
KA-50 only after I perfected Mi-8 ski launches!