Editor’s Note: 6,000 munitions. That’s a lot, especially by one specific aircraft type. According to Russian officials, that is the number of munitions dropped by the Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot attack aircraft during combat operations in Syria. The Frogfoot is the RuAF’s answer to our A-10C Thunderbolt, but..well, the Hawg it is not. Anyway, the 6,000 number consists of mostly unguided or “dumb” bombs, as well as a smattering of guided munitions.
On Mar. 16, the Russian Aerospace Forces (RuAF) welcomed the return of their Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft from Hmeymim airfield, in Syria, to their home base in the Krasnodar region.
As reported by the Tass News Agency, during the ceremony, Alexander Galkin, the Russia’s Southern Military District commander, said the Frogfoots flew more than 1,600 sorties and dropped around 6,000 bombs since when Russian aircraft began missions against terrorists in Syria on Sep. 15, 2015.
“After a prolonged assignment away from home we are welcoming back our best pilots. They have coped with all of their tasks. Over the past six months they flew 1,600 sorties in adverse conditions spending more than 1,000 hours in the sky over Syria to have dropped about 6,000 bombs on the terrorists,” Galkin said.
Noteworthy, the Sukhoi Su-34 bombers have been the first RuAF aircraft to leave Hmeymim airbase on Mar. 15, followed by the Su-24 and Su-25 attack jets which left the airfield later on the same day.
A we have already explained, unlike the U.S. led coalition combat planes which rely on accurate precision guided munitions (PGMs), the Russian aircraft made an extensive use of unguided bombs, such as the OFAB-250 which along with S-13 rockets represented the main weapon used by the Frogfoots against terrorists targets in Syria.
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(Featured photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
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