| Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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About the Revell-Monogram model: This, like most Revell-Monogram kits, was a relatively easy kit to build. In fact, the only real problem was the paint scheme: the kit didn't have one. I had to literally reference a photograph out of a book I borrowed from my uncle, and I was not particularly satisfied with the results, but what is one to do? The blue paint on the undersides (Pollyscale USSR Underside Blue) is WAY too deep and bright, but was as close as I could get (at the time, I was afraid to try mixing colors; my prior attempts had done little more than waste paint). This kit is tail heavy and requires a substantial counterweight in the nose (if you can fit it). Failing that, it includes a stiff peg to prop the tail up. This kit is currently out of production. About the Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot: Soaring onto the world stage during the USSR's war in Afghanistan is the Sukhoi-25 Frogfoot. In conforming image of Russian Air Power, the Frogfoot looks like a design failure. But the Su-25 is anything but that. It is capable of carrying a massive warload, more than 15,000 lbs, on ten external store stations. Like the US Air Force A-10, the cockpit of the Frogfoot is a titanium bathtub. (A barrage of twenty-millimeter gun rounds would barely dent the Frogfoot's thick armor; pilot and plane often escape combat situations unscathed.) Typical warloads for the Frogfoot are 57 mm rockets, unguided bombs, laser guided bombs, and air-to-ground missiles. The Su-25 is also capable of carrying IR homing air-to-air missiles. The Frogfoot possesses one major advantage over the A-10. That being, once all of the ordinance has been dropped off, the Su-25 will fly at speeds faster than Mach 1 (without afterburners), thanks to its two MiG-21 engines. The A-10 doesn't even come close with its top speed of less than 400 knots. Another advantage of the Frogfoot is that while US aircraft engines can be ruined by even the smallest piece of debris, Soviet engines, particularly Frogfoot engines, are capable of operating in conditions that would prevent our planes from leaving the runway, such as mud, sand, and dirt. One Russian pilot said you could land this aircraft on its fuselage, pick it up, lower the landing gear, clear the engines, and you could take off again. Russian aviation designers often say that their American counterparts go overboard, sacrificing simplicity for the sake of high-tech "add-ons." By contrast, the Frogfoot and other Russian planes are very simple, a design style that can accurately be described as "Ford over Ferrari."
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Copyright ©2003 David Jong [Jong Productions, Ltd.], All Rights Reserved. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Updated: December 8, 2003. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
