- 5/20/2025
For educational purposes
The Sukhoi Su-25 "Frogfoot" is a subsonic, single-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft developed in the Soviet Union by Sukhoi.
It was designed to provide close air support for Soviet Ground Forces, the first prototype made its maiden flight on 22 February 1975.
After testing, the aircraft went into series production in 1978 in Tbilisi in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.
By the end of the Soviet–Afghan War, nearly 50 Su-25s were deployed at Afghan airbases, carrying out a total of 60,000 sorties.
Between the first deployment in 1981 and the end of the war in 1989, 21–23 aircraft were lost in combat operations, with up to nine destroyed on the ground while parked.
The Sukhoi Su-25 "Frogfoot" is a subsonic, single-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft developed in the Soviet Union by Sukhoi.
It was designed to provide close air support for Soviet Ground Forces, the first prototype made its maiden flight on 22 February 1975.
After testing, the aircraft went into series production in 1978 in Tbilisi in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.
By the end of the Soviet–Afghan War, nearly 50 Su-25s were deployed at Afghan airbases, carrying out a total of 60,000 sorties.
Between the first deployment in 1981 and the end of the war in 1989, 21–23 aircraft were lost in combat operations, with up to nine destroyed on the ground while parked.
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LearningTranscript
00:30Until recently, this was Soviet airspace.
00:58And these warplanes were the foundation of the USSR's enormous protective shield.
01:13Among these aerobatic jet fighters is the Sukhoi 25.
01:23The Su-25 soared onto the world stage during the war which was to become the Soviet's
01:28Today, even though the Soviet Union is no more and the Cold War is over, Russia's elite
01:39group of fighter pilots uphold a long and distinguished tradition.
01:44We have to give advice to young pilots joining our squadron.
01:53The main thing is to give young pilots the opportunity to fly, to give them the opportunity
01:59to do what they would love to dedicate their lives to.
02:05With the advent of market forces and the collapse of the military funding systems, these pilots
02:10at Lipetsk airbase, as well as everyone else in Russia, are experiencing severe cutbacks.
02:24For Sukhoi 25 squadron commander Andrei Samotsviet, getting enough flying time for his pilots
02:30is a constant challenge.
02:33Unfortunately, a lot of good pilots had to change their occupation.
02:42For the Air Force, it was not good.
02:50The Lipetsk airbase simulator facility has seen better days.
02:57However, bare light bulbs and tattered linoleum have always been the standard here, even in
03:05the days of the mighty Soviet Empire.
03:14The Russian Air Force has lacked the technological edge which the Western Air Forces have taken
03:18for granted.
03:21This 1985 model flight simulator is symbolic of the underfunding in the Russian military.
03:32A scrolling terrain board is used for practicing flight maneuvers.
03:36The same practice in the US Air Force is done with elaborate 3D virtual landscapes.
03:43Because jet fuel is in short supply, this may be the only flying pilots will do this
03:48month.
03:53Money is so tight, a mechanic cannot be hired to repair the simulator cockpit's roll, pitch
03:58and yaw motions.
04:04We have a whole massive force of people who have been laid off, half probably if not more,
04:11maybe two-thirds or three-quarters, who are redundant, waiting for this to pick back up.
04:16And they will do it for free.
04:18If they have to.
04:19If nothing else, they get lunch.
04:24Everything in the Russian Air Force, from personnel to planes, has been affected by
04:28massive downsizing.
04:30Before 1991, the Soviet Air Force had 20,000 pilots and 13,000 planes.
04:37The morale of the Air Force, both soldiers and officers, was very high at all times.
04:49And it was a special additional weapon.
04:59It is true that pilots were always considered to be more intelligent.
05:03They were always the elite of the armed forces.
05:06That is why they are more democratic, they have a different relationship among themselves.
05:16And pilots are good guys.
05:21The largest Western stereotype of the Russian pilot was that he had no independent thought
05:25capability.
05:26This guy took orders from the ground, listened to a radio, just basically a robot.
05:31He was an automatic pilot that was made out of flesh.
05:34And he simply was told, turn right to 070 and launch your missile at 25 miles.
05:40The biggest surprise for me was that these guys weren't like that at all.
05:43They didn't care what the guy on the ground said.
05:46They will certainly obey orders, and if they don't obey orders, they end up in a pretty
05:52rugged rest camp somewhere.
05:54So they certainly listened to their superiors.
05:55But they were a little more independent thinking than that.
05:57And most military pilots really are.
06:00They'll tell you on the outside, we're keeping rules, we'll look like robots, we're supposed
06:04to do our job.
06:05But on the inside, we'll just go do what we're supposed to do.
06:07Peter, we're going to lunch.
06:17During the Cold War, a Soviet pilot's job would never have included providing joyrides
06:22for rich Westerners.
06:24Today, the Russian aviation industry is in the midst of a worldwide promotion.
06:31Their unusual sales pitch is an opportunity to fly in one of Russia's most impressive
06:35jet fighters, the Sukhoi 27.
06:41Like the American F-16, this fighter-interceptor demands attention.
06:48The passenger is treated to a once-in-a-lifetime experience, as Russian pilots perform acrobatics
06:54for the sake of a possible sale.
06:58People seeking Westerners line up for the joyrides at $15,000 each.
07:03There have been allegations that these fees disappear into individual pockets, rather
07:08than where the money is really needed, in the hands of Air Force pilots and technicians.
07:16For the man in the cockpit, the joyride provides a double bonus, a chance to show off his own
07:21flying skills while getting additional flying time.
07:28There is a glamour about this plane, but the true workhorse of the Russian Air Force is
07:32the Sukhoi 25, often known in the West by its NATO designation, the Frogfoot.
07:46This snub-nosed attack plane is simple, sturdy, fast, and highly manoeuvrable.
07:54The Su-25 is the Russian fighter pilot's plane of choice.
07:59As any pilot, every pilot loves his plane.
08:04I love my plane because I flew it over 15 years.
08:10You know, I want to tell you a story.
08:13We were flying planes to deliver them to the army of one of the friendly countries.
08:20When we arrived, one of the pilots stepped out of his plane and kissed it.
08:30This is how we expressed our love for the plane, which gave us so many opportunities
08:36and saved our lives so many times.
08:41That's why we love them so much.
08:45You American pilots fell in love with this plane too.
08:49When the Blue Angels visited us and we flew together, we flew F-18s with your pilots,
09:00and they flew MiG-29s, Su-27s.
09:07I invited them to try the Su-25.
09:11Most of them looked at the plane suspiciously.
09:14They didn't want to try it.
09:16Then we pushed one of their pilots into the plane.
09:20When he tried flying it, he liked it very much.
09:23He didn't expect this performance from this plane.
09:26After that, the American pilots were standing in line to fly it.
09:35I've flown it.
09:38And I was very impressed.
09:40I was the first Western pilot to fly the airplane.
09:42And the reason?
09:43Nobody else wanted to fly it.
09:44That's it.
09:45It's an old Su-25.
09:46Same thing about it.
09:47Oh, it's an old A-10.
09:48Who wants to fly that?
09:53Now, there's something unique in our country about the A-10.
09:59It has an institutional hatred.
10:01People don't like the A-10.
10:02Let's get rid of the A-10.
10:04Because it's a low-tech box, and you don't cram billion-dollar pieces of equipment in
10:17it.
10:18You put a gun in it, with a good gun, and some guts, and some training, and the airplane
10:23survives.
10:24Just like it did in Desert Storm.
10:27The Su-25 is their idea of our A-10.
10:34It has a decent 30-millimeter gun, certainly not like the gun in the A-10, but it fires
10:38a big round, and it'll punch a hole in a tank.
10:44It'll carry a lot of weapons on the outside, bombs, rockets.
10:49And what's interesting about the Su-25 is, once you punch everything off of it, it will
10:54go over Mach 1.
10:58The A-10 doesn't even come close.
11:01It slows down and stops right around 400 knots.
11:05Whereas the Su-25 will go straight through the speed of sound, and it'll turn on a dime
11:10in great acceleration.
11:19Our planes can work in any weather condition.
11:23Our operating parameters are from plus 50, plus 60 degrees centigrade in the shade, to
11:30minus 80, minus 60 degrees centigrade.
11:34This is a wide range of parameters, from negative to positive, because of the territory of Russia
11:40is huge, and climate is very different and difficult.
11:45Our planes and helicopters are designed to work in any region.
12:00Perhaps it's appropriate for a plane nicknamed Frogfoot to have such an unassuming and decidedly
12:05unglamorous home.
12:14This is the flight line at Lipetsk Air Base, in the windswept steppes of central Russia.
12:21By western standards, it appears to be suffering from years of neglect and disrepair.
12:26Lipetsk is actually not much different from its days as an important Soviet air base.
12:33The Russians never took great care with their facilities.
12:37Crumbling concrete was a standard, because Russian concrete was of very poor quality.
12:41So it would decay on its own, and the rubble would be pushed aside.
12:47Since 1991, that reality has been amplified many times over.
12:53Now everything is pretty much in a state of rubble, grass grows everywhere.
12:59Our machines aren't like that at all.
13:03Ours could not take anything along those lines to speak of, whereas theirs could.
13:09Russian equipment was made to operate in those conditions.
13:12It was made to operate in crumbling concrete, mud, sand, dirt, all kinds of things that
13:18don't starve the machinery of air or fuel.
13:22And this was to become self-evident in the disastrous Afghan war.
13:31Historically, Russian aviation design has differed greatly from its US counterpart.
13:39It's often been said that American aviation designers go overboard, sacrificing simplicity
13:45for the sake of unneeded high-tech extras.
13:50Russian planes reflect Soviet military design policy, both practical and unfussy.
13:57Russian airplanes are uncluttered.
13:59In this air force, the emphasis is on sheer weight of numbers.
14:07The intent is to overwhelm the enemy, often at the cost of many pilots.
14:12Those who survive will most likely fly the Sukhoi 25.
14:18Like the US Air Force A-10, the Su-25 cockpit is a titanium strongbox.
14:32A barrage of 20-millimeter gun rounds barely dents the flying tank's protective shield.
14:38Pilot and plane often escape unscathed.
14:42The Su-25 belongs to ground attack aviation.
14:50It is a modern flying tank.
14:56We find out quickly, once we start a war, we need that kind of in-the-face, knife-fighting
15:01type of airplane that will support the guy on the ground quickly, easily, and close.
15:05You've got to get in close to support somebody.
15:07You don't stand off at 20 miles and support the guys on the front line.
15:11You've got to get in there with a gun, and some skill, and maybe some night vision goggles,
15:16and learn how to mix it up at the FIBA, the forward edge of the battle area.
15:21That's what the Su-25 does, and that's why frontal aviation will never get rid of it
15:25as long as they've got some money.
15:26It's a simple airplane.
15:27It's got two MiG-21 engines in it, reliable, been around for a long time.
15:32They can throw them away like cordwood and put more of them in.
15:34You can belly it in and jack it up, do a few repairs, and fly it off.
15:39It is a rugged, rugged airplane.
15:501979.
15:52War breaks out on the Soviet southern border.
15:55This rugged terrain will become the flying tank's proving ground.
16:00Until now, the Su-25 was an untested prototype.
16:07The place is Afghanistan.
16:09Soviet troops invade on December the 27th, 1979.
16:19When I went there, I believed that we were helping the Afghans to defend themselves from
16:24a foreign aggressor, which the Babrak-Karmal regime was fighting.
16:34I believed it was a noble cause.
16:41The so-called cause was to support the struggling Afghan communist regime.
16:56For 25 years, the Soviets poured foreign aid into Afghanistan.
17:00Then, the help came in the form of military might.
17:10The Kremlin employed its usual strategy, deploying 100,000 troops and almost 5,000 advisers.
17:17In other words, to simply overwhelm the Afghan resistance.
17:30The Russians were used to smashing any resistance so quickly.
17:35But soon they found out in Afghanistan that Afghanistan was not Czechoslovakia, Poland, or Hungary.
17:41Freedom-loving tribesmen have never learned submission.
17:48Afghanistan's seven main tribes have had a history of fighting among themselves long
17:53before the Soviets invaded.
17:56Yet, the brutal Soviet actions served only to unify the seven tribes.
18:02They now rallied together in a shared bitter hatred for the Soviets.
18:10I wanted to avenge the deaths of the ones which were close to me and my family,
18:15because vengeance in the Afghans is something which is not easy.
18:22Vengeance in the Afghans is something which has very deep roots.
18:28There is an Indian proverb that God saved me from the teeth of the tiger,
18:33from the venom of the cobra, and the vengeance of the Afghans.
18:41You know, from a pilot's point of view, it's very difficult to describe an enemy which you cannot see.
18:46The opposition, which we felt and saw when we attacked,
18:51indicated that the people were defending a definite interest.
18:56But what exactly those interests were, we did not know.
19:04We felt that they were well-prepared people who knew what they were fighting for.
19:16The Afghan rebel fighters are called Mujahideen, meaning fighters of God.
19:29Strengthened with the spirit of a higher calling,
19:32these warriors cut through the ranks of the Soviet aggressors.
19:46The Soviets had a severe handicap.
19:50They had long trained for World War III against NATO troops
19:54on the open plains of Central Europe.
19:58The Soviets quickly discovered that their enemy were stealthy guerrillas
20:02fighting in the narrow, high mountain passes of the Hindu Kush.
20:14The Soviets had a severe handicap.
20:18They had long trained for World War III against NATO troops
20:22on the open plains of Central Europe.
20:28The Soviet ground troops didn't stand a chance.
20:32Most conscripts were under-trained and only 18 and 19 years old.
20:41By April 1980, it was soon becoming obvious that the troops
20:45would need more air support if they had any chance of gaining ground.
20:49Enter the Su-25.
20:53I was with a colleague of mine, a cameraman,
20:57and I think we were probably among the first journalists
21:01to have seen the Sukhois, and I'd never come across fighter jets like that.
21:05They literally would fly in beneath you in the mountain valleys,
21:09and their maneuverability was extraordinary.
21:13And from what I gathered from the guerrillas,
21:17they were very anxious about the Sukhois.
21:21The MiGs tended to come in at much higher levels.
21:25They would fly over the mountains, and they tended to fly
21:29in straighter paths than the Sukhois would.
21:33So when the Sukhois first appeared, they apparently were quite effective
21:37against the guerrillas, and the guerrillas didn't quite know how to deal with them as well.
21:41When people saw their first aircraft coming,
21:45they would run, which would draw attention to the pilots.
21:57Despite a great technological advantage over the Mujahideen,
22:01Soviet by-the-book training and strict combat orders
22:05didn't allow for the flexibility required in this guerrilla war.
22:09At times, the Western stereotype
22:13of the robotic Soviet pilot held true.
22:21The Soviet pilots had their orders, and they would not waver from these orders.
22:25Their order might be to move from point A to point B,
22:29and you could have an entire army of guerrillas moving underneath,
22:33and they wouldn't go to attack.
22:37Also, the Soviets tended to fight a very 9-to-5 war with their pilots.
22:41They would come in the morning, and they would stop at midday,
22:45and they'd be back at 2 in the afternoon.
22:49There was no element of surprise.
22:57Ambush was the Mujahideen's strong suit.
23:01They broke up into small bands and spread out over Afghanistan's
23:05desert and high mountains.
23:17The land's natural nooks and crannies provided a perfect foil
23:21for the Su-25's bulk and natural speed.
23:25I suppose these mountains were dangerous for their pilots also.
23:29They are the same for everyone.
23:33You will continue on, or you will end up crashing into mountains.
23:43We had to attack from one direction, or let us say,
23:47from one side of the mountains,
23:51and the air defense naturally could expect from which side
23:55the attack was coming from.
23:59The flying tanks carried the latest ordnance in the Soviet arsenal.
24:03Laser-guided bombs destroyed the narrow-mouthed caves
24:07of the Mujahideen.
24:11Also, the indiscriminate bombing of civilian centers
24:15in the Afghan valleys became an Su-25 mission.
24:23For 25 years, the Soviets helped build a modern infrastructure
24:27in one of the world's poorest countries.
24:31Now, they set out to destroy it.
24:35The flying tank was largely responsible for this carnage,
24:39dropping, on average, 4-ton loads of unguided bombs,
24:43salvos of 57-mm rockets, and cluster munitions.
24:47The Soviets suffered the same fate as the Americans
24:51in Vietnam when trying to break the guerrilla's support systems.
24:55Very often, there were attacks against villages
24:59to try and make life as difficult as possible,
25:03to punish the civilians for their support of the guerrillas.
25:11Punishing duty became the order for Soviet pilots.
25:15They were often sent on 5 missions a day.
25:19The conflict could no longer be called a 9-to-5 war.
25:23There, pilots depended more than ever on ground controllers
25:27who constantly corrected frog-foot maneuvers.
25:31Sometimes we could not see a thing when we were flying,
25:35and we had to bomb according to the radio direction finder.
25:39Sometimes we could see a fight, a firefight over here,
25:43a firefight over there, so we could tell approximately
25:47where the front line was.
25:53I do not have any information
25:57that I have ever hit a civilian target,
26:01but it is possible. War is war, but I do not know about it.
26:09Pilots knew that their bombs could stray anything up to 60 meters.
26:13Accurate strikes depended on accurate intelligence.
26:17This information was supplied to the Soviet ground forces
26:21by local friendly Afghans.
26:25But the Soviets quickly learned that the Afghan
26:29was an adept guerrilla fighter,
26:33and that included using deception.
26:37Mistakes were made, but there is also the fact
26:41that Afghan military or civilian intelligence
26:45or forward observers who were pointing out targets for us
26:49were actually pointing out
26:53their personal blood enemies.
26:57The battle lines were often blurred and uncertain.
27:11Compounding a lack of intelligence,
27:15the Soviets also had to deal with misinformation
27:19and especially spies within their own ranks.
27:23Among them is MiG pilot Major Jalal Wardak.
27:27For most of the war,
27:31he passed information to the Mujahideen.
27:35Then, on the verge of being discovered as a spy,
27:39he joined the Mujahideen
27:43after years of flying alongside his communist countrymen
27:47and their Soviet supporters.
27:51They were confused about me.
27:55I told the Mujahideen,
27:59okay, the day after tomorrow,
28:03this base is going to attack this area, that much planes.
28:07They changed their plan.
28:11Of course, the Russians, they have intelligence service.
28:15When they got a report back from how many people dead,
28:19they said two women, two kids, and two, three animals, no guerrillas.
28:23And they got shocked. They said, gosh, how it's happened like that?
28:27When Russian, they were bombing somewhere,
28:31and we just see that, destroying the country, destroying the villages,
28:36we had some feeling, like we feel bad, like what's going on?
28:40And they said, this is the enemy.
28:44But we couldn't ask them which enemy.
28:48Enemy, that's your enemy, but the country is mine.
28:52And I know that's not enemy, that's my brother, that's my blood,
28:56that's the person who's fighting for my land.
29:00For Jalal Wardak, defecting to the Mujahideen
29:04but expelling the Soviets was a cause more important than his chosen occupation.
29:12At first, the Mujahideen's best defense against the Soviet jets
29:16were leftovers from an earlier war with the British.
29:24Mostly, they had British .303 rifles and captured recoilless weapons.
29:28Chinese-made heavy anti-aircraft machine guns
29:32and hand-held Soviet-made missiles
29:36became part of the Mujahideen arsenal.
29:40These arms were numerous, but not reliable.
29:44Eventually, highly mobile Stinger missiles
29:48became an essential part of the Mujahideen arsenal.
29:52The Stinger had an immediate impact
29:56on the Soviet jets.
30:00Among the early hits were four flying tanks.
30:04Two Soviet crew members perished.
30:16It was hard, but we survived it.
30:20It was hard for anyone to lose a close friend.
30:24We all became close friends there.
30:28It probably had psychological effectiveness.
30:32The number of Stingers I saw, I saw probably five or six,
30:36and each one I saw being fired missed.
30:40I think the information now, which has come out in recent years,
30:44indicates that the Stinger was not really that effective.
30:48The ultimate psychological warfare waged
30:52was the graphic reports of Mujahideen atrocities
30:56against captured Soviet soldiers and airmen.
31:09At best, the Mujahideen would not give their prisoners water or food.
31:13At worst, the captors were inhumane,
31:17torturing and killing their prisoners.
31:38This prompted Soviet Su-25 pilots
31:42to expand their safety margin by flying higher and faster.
31:46The result was that ground troops became more vulnerable
31:50to capture or destruction.
31:58Russians began to get shy.
32:02They didn't roam the skies, they were all the time looking at their back.
32:06The pilots were afraid of being knocked out of the sky.
32:10And that's, of course, very bad for an attack pilot.
32:14He tends to release his weapons and flee,
32:18instead of hanging there and attacking and attacking and helping the ground troops.
32:22And that, of course, changed the Russian effort,
32:26the Russian army, and they began to get less
32:30and less effective air support.
32:34And that really created a lot of havoc here in Moscow.
32:38Everyone began to yell that we need to find something to stop the Stinger.
32:42There was lots of billions of rubles,
32:46and then billions of rubles were a lot of money,
32:50were really poured into developing ways of deflecting Stingers.
32:58The Stingers set off alarm bells in Moscow.
33:02It was yet another problem plaguing the Soviet war effort.
33:06The war had been terribly costly,
33:10costing millions of money and lives.
33:14Yet not a single Afghan city outside Kabul fell to Communist control.
33:22Seven years into the fighting,
33:26Afghanistan was referred to as a bleeding wound
33:30by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
33:34I will not give much credit
33:38to Gorbachev's capabilities.
33:42They were definitely very accurate, very destructive,
33:46and formidable against the civilian targets, especially the village.
33:50But against the mujahideen, I mean, since mujahideens were usually,
33:54I mean, we were winning because we were dispersed.
33:58We were ambiguous. We were elusive.
34:02Even though the Afghan rebels
34:06didn't regularly take or hold any ground,
34:10they did continuously chip away at the Soviet will to stay and fight.
34:18I would like to add here that we had a feeling
34:22that the Afghan government wanted to fight with their opponents
34:26using our hands instead of using their own means.
34:32The civil war was like watching a fight between two lovers.
34:36A third lover was not needed.
34:441989. The Soviets gave up
34:48and withdrew from Afghanistan.
34:56In ten years, they had committed more than one million troops and pilots
35:00to a war that could not be won.
35:09Throughout the history, you see, they have always won.
35:13I mean, they were able to, in the past, I mean, to accept
35:17casualties which will be beyond our imagination.
35:21Like, I mean, in World War II, in the Battle of Kiev or Smolensk,
35:2550 divisions will be destroyed here, 650,000 there,
35:29and still they will not give a damn.
35:33But because of the political unrest inside Soviet Union,
35:37I mean, while they were fighting in Afghanistan,
35:41they were sensitive to accepting higher casualties.
35:47More than one million Afghan civilians died in the war.
35:51Afghanistan has not yet recovered.
35:55Afghanistan was the beginning of the end for the Soviets.
35:59Military and political disintegration followed.
36:03By 1991, the Communist Empire had fallen.
36:11However, this disintegration only led to further bloodshed on its borders.
36:19The road to independence is paved with much misery and death.
36:25War is evil.
36:29People who have never been to a war
36:33dream about,
36:37play wars.
36:43I remember during the upheaval,
36:47guns got into the White House.
36:51They were so excited having weapons in their hands.
36:57I put my guns aside.
37:01It was nonsense. Anyway.
37:05These people were naive.
37:09They didn't know what war was.
37:13People coming back from Chechnya are not the same as people returning from a military service.
37:17They are much older.
37:21Weakened by internal strife,
37:25Moscow was unable to control rebellious republics on Russia's distant frontier.
37:29And one of these was the Muslim Republic of Chechnya,
37:33soon to become yet another military debacle.
37:37In September 1991,
37:41Chechnya tried to secede from Russia,
37:45ending nearly 175 long years
37:49of Russian domination.
37:53At first, Moscow tried financial aid and diplomacy
37:57to bring Chechnya back into the fold.
38:01It didn't work.
38:05In 1994,
38:09the Kremlin leadership made a tragic decision.
38:17In their eyes, total control could only be achieved
38:21through a ruthless military approach.
38:25Just five years after the loss in Afghanistan,
38:29Russian troops were sent east.
38:33The situation in Chechnya was complex,
38:37perhaps even more so than the situation in Afghanistan.
38:41Russian leaders conducted the war from the distance of the Kremlin
38:45to catastrophic consequences.
38:49Colonel Valery Burkov,
38:53a decorated Afghan war veteran,
38:57was severely injured stepping on a landmine.
39:01After I got wounded
39:05and lost both legs,
39:09my commander came to visit me in the hospital.
39:13First of all, I asked him
39:17to help me stay in the Air Force.
39:21I knew the problems in the Air Force.
39:25I wanted to solve these problems.
39:29I didn't want other people to suffer needlessly.
39:33I wanted to raise the combat efficiency of the Air Force
39:37in support of the land forces.
39:41Once again, the Sukhoi-25 was pushed into action.
39:45Pilots from Lipetsk Air Base were sent to local airfields.
39:49From there, Chechnya was well within the 640-km range
39:53of a fully loaded Su-25.
39:57It was a ideal venue for flying tank improvements
40:01devised during Afghanistan, such as precise laser targeting.
40:05Afghanistan also provided new knowledge about tactical airstrikes.
40:09But Air Force command shelved most of those lessons
40:13in favor of brutal superpower warfare.
40:17The flying tank was assigned to deliver massive blows
40:21to defenders on the ground, paving the way for a flood of Russian troops.
40:25Initially, the Air Force attempted to sway the action in Chechnya
40:29through surgical airstrikes.
40:33Early on, the Su-25 exhibited powerful precision
40:37in a battle for an important strategic stronghold,
40:41the Chechen presidential palace.
40:45The Chechens were in the bunker.
40:49This palace was a former Soviet building
40:54And these Sukhoi-25s, they dropped very precisely
40:58several concrete piercing bombs that destroyed
41:02part of the bunker.
41:06Then the Chechens withdrew.
41:10And these were Sukhoi-25s, not more sophisticated, more electronically equipped
41:14Russian bombers. These were just the workhorse Sukhoi-25s.
41:18Flying tank missions
41:22in support of the ground troops did not go as smoothly.
41:26They faced a new unforgiving foe.
41:30The weather. Thick cloud cover
41:34rendered the Su-25's laser inoperable.
41:38So the Russians resorted to highly inaccurate widespread bombing.
41:42This freed the Chechens to fight as they fought best.
41:46And, like the Afghan Mujahideen,
41:50the Chechens proved highly creative with any sort of arm
41:54they could acquire. Everything from shotguns to shoulder-held
41:58anti-tank weapons.
42:02Where they could function, the Su-25s dodged fire
42:06from Chechen anti-aircraft guns, which the former Soviet rulers had left behind.
42:10This turned out to be the only piece of luck
42:14for the flying tank.
42:18The Russians managed to divert these weapons.
42:22They have a special kind of electronic inbuilt system
42:26that doesn't allow Russian soldiers in combat conditions, when they might go wild,
42:30to shoot at their own aircraft.
42:34And so these weapons, the Chechens didn't manage
42:38to reprogram them. And the weapons recognized Russian
42:42aircraft as friendly, and they refused to fire.
42:46By the 1996 ceasefire agreement,
42:50only two Su-25s were reported shot down.
42:54And while Russian ground troops fared poorly during the conflict,
42:58the flying tank was a constant threat to the Chechen fighters.
43:02I wouldn't say the Russian air force has been crippled by Chechnya.
43:06Basically, of all the services of the Russian army,
43:10this is the service that came out best.
43:14They had very low losses. This was basically their war.
43:18The Chechens hated them very much, and they killed pilots.
43:22If they ever got any pilots, captured them, they killed them immediately,
43:26because it was the air force that was giving them the most punishment.
43:30Punishment provided by the flying tank.
43:34Scarred land, ruined cities, more refugees.
43:40In purely destructive terms,
43:44Chechnya, and Afghanistan for that matter,
43:48could be described loosely as victories.
43:52In truth, the indiscriminate massacre is the result
43:56of grossly inaccurate bombing missions.
44:04The air war in Chechnya quickly exposed
44:08weaknesses in the Russian air force.
44:12Aging equipment, poor training, and an inability to overcome the weather.
44:20From military and political points of view,
44:24we forgot our experience in Afghanistan
44:28during the war in Chechnya.
44:32If we haven't learned much,
44:36we are repeating the same mistakes.
44:48An eternal flame symbolizes the commitment to soldiers and pilots
44:52who fought in the former Soviet Union's campaigns.
45:02World War II veterans are held in exceptionally high esteem.
45:08But Moscow's Red Square has no memorial
45:12for those who fought and died in the much more recent wars
45:16in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
45:20It appears the Russian leadership doesn't want people to remember these conflicts.
45:26But the thousands who fought will never forget.
45:32We don't have any special privileges.
45:36Sometimes in the press and among people
45:40I run across a negative attitude towards the war.
45:44I feel very bad when I see it.
45:48It was our soldiers' duty.
45:52Devotion to military duty
45:56is nearly the only incentive left for airmen
46:00during Russia's economic crisis.
46:04There is scant hope for a glorious return of the air force
46:08in the foreseeable future.
46:12What can I say?
46:16And what I'm saying to young pilots who join our unit is that you should not fear.
46:20There is no need to fear.
46:24And you should not fear.
46:28You should go along with your profession,
46:32which was always considered to be one of the highest
46:36technically intelligent professions.
46:40Because, of course, a pilot combines several professions
46:44for his proficiency.
46:48But they remain the same,
46:52and especially in this country,
46:56which always had a very high respect for its pilots.
47:07In modern Russia, respect for airmen comes at too great a price.
47:11Meanwhile, back at Lipetsk airbase,
47:15a rare display of respect for Russia's pilots was shown.
47:23It was payday, the first payday these flying tank pilots
47:27have had in three months.
47:41Airbus A330-321-9 Dreamliner
47:45A330-321-9 Dreamliner
47:49A330-321-9 Dreamliner
47:53Airbus A330-321-9 Dreamliner
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