1. Welcome to the first training flight in the Su-25, or Shturmovik in Russian, close air support aircraft. This legendary aircraft earned its renowned reputation in the skies over Afghanistan. Dubbed 'the flying tank' for its heavy armor protection and rugged survivability, the Su-25 is armed with cannon, bombs, unguided rockets and guided air-to-surface missiles to provide support to friendly troops.
2. The Su-25 is powered by two Tumanskiy R-195 non-afterburning turbojet engines that provide a total thrust of up to 9,000 kg, which allows the aircraft to reach speeds of up to 970 km/h at low altitudes and 0.8 Mach at altitude. The maximum range of the Su-25 is 1,250 km/h with a maximum ceiling of 7,000 m.
3. The elevator and rudder control surfaces are directly connected to the cockpit controls through a series of rods and levers. To reduce the amount of stick force experienced by the pilot, spring-loaded servo actuators are installed and aileron control is aided by a hydraulic booster system. The aircraft is quite maneuverable and provides a stable platform for delivery of various types of air-to-surface munitions.
4. To take over control of the aircraft or exit the mission, press the "ESC" key.
5. In this training flight, we'll discuss the Su-25's primary cockpit instruments and learn to use the navigation system to fly along a planned route. A description of the ASP-17 gun sight for combat employment will be discussed in later lessons.
6. Let's take a look at the instrument panel. We'll begin with the 5 primary instruments. The first of these is the Attitude Direction Indicator, or ADI.
7. The ADI, also called the artificial horizon, indicates current bank and pitch angles. The aircraft datum is placed over a vertical pitch scale. The pitch scale rotates up and down under the aircraft datum to indicate the angle of climb or descent relative to the horizon. The aircraft datum will roll left and right to indicate bank angle. Tick marks around the bottom half of the ADI indicate the angle of bank.
8. The ADI also includes pitch and bank directors, which help to maintain the assigned heading and altitude. The yellow horizontal needle is the pitch director and the vertical needle is the bank director.
9. The small, white vertical needle at the top of the ADI is the heading director and the horizontal needle on the left side is the altitude director. By keeping the larger yellow and smaller white directors centered, you can accurately maintain your assigned course and altitude while navigating the flight route.
10. The next instrument is the Horizontal Situation Indicator, or HSI, which represents a top-down view of your aircraft in relation to the flight route. The magnetic compass rose rotates so that the solid white triangle at the top of the instrument will always indicate your current heading.
11. Two needles rotate inside the HSI. The longer needle with a circle at the end will always point to your selected navigation point. The shorter needle will indicate the assigned course heading for that point.
12. The cross in the center of the HSI is used for landing approaches.
13. To the left of the HSI is the Steerpoint Range Indicator. This instrument shows the range in kilometers to the selected navigation point.
14. Next is the Airspeed Indicator, located in the upper left portion of the instrument panel. The outer ring scale represents Indicated Airspeed (IAS) and the inner scale represents True Airspeed (TAS) in 100s of km/h.
15. The last of the 5 primary flight instruments is the Vertical Velocity Indicator (VVI), which includes a turn and slip indicator.
16. The last of the 5 primary flight instruments is the Vertical Velocity Indicator (VVI), which includes a turn and slip indicator.
17. The turn indicator is the vertical needle and is marked for 1 - 3 degrees/sec to the left and right. The black ball is the slip indicator and is used to coordinate turns by keeping it centered in the tube.
18. The Mach Indicator is located to the right of the VVI. This is a good time to remember that the Su-25 is limited to Mach 0.85.
19. On the left side of the instrument panel is the combined Angle of Attack (AoA) and G Indicator.
20. The angle of attack and G scales include marks for maximum allowed limits.
21. Below the Barometric Altimeter is the Radar Altimeter, which is functional from 0 to 1,500 m.
22. Below the Mach Indicator is the engine RPM indicator. The instrument is marked from 0 to 100%, where 100% is full engine power. The left engine is represented by the needle marked '1' and the right engine is by the needle marked '2'.
23. To the left of the RPM Indicator and below the VVI is the clock. You can start and reset the second-hand by pressing "RSHIFT-C".
24. Below the engine RPM indicator are two temperature gauges that show the engine exhaust temperature (EGT) in degrees Celsius for each engine.
25. To the right of the Mach Indicator is the fuel gauge. This shows remaining fuel in the internal and external tanks.
26. Finally, the SPO-15 Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) is at the top right of the instrument panel. Functionality of the RWR will be discussed in a later lesson.
27. Now that we have reviewed the primary flight instruments, it's time to use this knowledge to fly along a planned route. The Su-25 has 3 navigation sub-modes that can be cycled by pressing the "1" key.
28. The first navigation sub-mode is 'Enroute'. This is the primary navigation mode used to fly along a planned route. You can select between the navigation points of the route by pressing "LCTRL + ~". Use the Steerpoint Range Indicator to verify selection of the intended navigation point.
29. The second navigation sub-mode is 'Return'. This mode is used for initial approach to the selected airfield. You can select between available airfields by pressing "LCTRL + ~". Use the Steerpoint Range Indicator to verify selection of the intended airfield.
30. The third navigation sub-mode is 'Landing'. This mode is used for final approach and to locate and stay on glidepath down to the runway.
31. We are now on course to Waypoint-1 (WP1) at an altitude of 1,000 m. Once we pass it, the navigation system will automatically switch to WP2.
32. Watch the HSI as the switch is made from WP1 to WP2. The long needle will point directly to WP2 and the short needle will indicate the assigned course heading to WP2.
33. Since we are somewhat off course, we'll make a course correction to line up with the assigned course heading by using two turns. First, we'll turn an additional 30 degrees to approach the assigned course line and then we'll turn 30 degrees back. As a result, the two needles should line up, indicating we're flying on course directly to the steerpoint.
34. Now try to monitor three instruments together - the ADI, HSI and Steerpoint Range Indicator. Use the latter to check range to the steerpoint.
35. It's very important to perform course corrections accurately and without error, especially in poor visibility conditions.
36. Given that we've corrected properly and are flying on course, we can follow the ADI directors and descend to 500 m.
37. We are now on course at our assigned altitude for WP2. Let's manually select WP3 by pressing "LCTRL + ~".
38. With WP3 selected, the HSI is directing us to a heading of 270. We will turn and climb to 4,000 m.
39. The ADI directors are guiding us to the assigned route.
40. We're now on course at our assigned altitude for WP3. Let's manually select WP4 by pressing "LCTRL + ~".
41. Because we're off-course, we'll use a steeper course-correction of 45-degrees this time.
42. For more detailed information about Su-25 avionics and employment, refer to the Flight Manual.
43. We are now on course at our assigned altitude for WP4.
44. As we approach WP4, the navigation system will automatically switch to 'Return' sub-mode, which will guide us to the Krymsk airfield. At this point, you can exit the mission or take over and perform the approach and landing. Good luck!
1. Welcome to this Su-25 training lesson on the employment of guns and unguided rockets against ground targets.
2. You can take over control at anytime by pressing the ESC key.
3. To pause the lesson, press the PAUSE key.
4. The Su-25 is armed with the GSh-302 twin-barrel 30 mm internal cannon. In addition, up to four SPPU-22 gun pods can be carried externally. Each gun pod is equipped with an GSh-23 twin-barrel 23 mm cannon that can traverse down to point at the ground.
The Su-25 is also armed with a number of different unguided rocket types:
The S-5 57 mm rocket has 32 rockets per pod;
The S-8 80 mm rocket has 20 rockets per pod;
The S-13 130 mm rocket has 5 rockets per pod;
The S-24 heavy rocket is loaded one per pylon;
And the S-25 is an improved heavy rocket that is carried inside a dedicated launch tube. Only one S-25 can be carried per station.
5. In total, up to 8 stations can be loaded with rockets of various types.
6. To begin, we'll select air-to-ground mode by pressing the 7 key. The Weapons Control System (WCS) will automatically select S-8 rockets that are loaded on the outer stations.
7. Perform the attack from a dive.
8. The targeting reticle indicates the calculated impact point. To maximize accuracy, press RSHIFT + O to activate the laser to measure the slant range to target. The green lamp will light to indicate that the laser is active. A range scale around the targeting reticle shows the range to impact point.
9. The orange lamp indicates that Launch is Authorized. Maneuver to place the reticle over the target and fire!
10. Rockets will continue to fire as long as the trigger is held down, which is a good way to control the number of rockets released. Heavy rockets can only be fired one at a time.
11. We'll now bring up the internal gun by pressing the C key.
12. When using either the internal gun or external gun pods, the burst length can be controlled in two ways:
- You can manually cut-off when the burst ends by releasing the trigger (Space key). This mode is always enabled;
- Or you can automatically cut-off when the burst ends after a set number of rounds being fired. This mode can be enabled or disabled by pressing LShift + C.
Maneuver to place the reticle over the target.
13. Fire!
14. For our next pass, well use the gun pods loaded on the inboard stations. Well use the Fixed Depression mode to take advantage of the pods capability to traverse down. To enable Fixed Depression mode, the laser must be off and the Ripple Quantity switch on the WCS Panel must be set to either По 2 (Russian Po 2) or По 4 (Russian Po 4) by pressing LCTRL + Space. The Ripple Quantity setting functions as follows:
По 2 (Po 2) allows two pods to fire
По 4 (Po 4) allows four pods to fire
15. The green light on the WCS Panel indicates that the gun pods are depressed below the aircraft. If the guns are retracted, the light will be off.
Gun depression steps are controlled RCTRL + and RCTRL -. To smoothly depress the pods, pres RALT + and RALT -.
16. Depress the gun pods to the desired angle by watching the gun reticle on the HUD.
17. Maneuver the aircraft to place the reticle over the target.
18. Fire!
19. Well attack the next target with only two pods. To do so, set the Ripple Quantity switch to По 2 (Po 2) by pressing LCTRL + Space.
20. For this run, well switch to Programmed Point Tracking mode, which is enabled automatically when the laser is active and guns pods are selected.
In this mode, the guns will automatically stay fixed to the aimed point.
21. Lets disable automatic burst cut-off by pressing LShift + C. The guns will now fire as long as the trigger is held down.
22. Press RShift + O to activate the laser and thus enabling Programmed Point Tracking mode.
23. Maneuver to place the reticle over the target.
24. Press the trigger to fire and hold it down until the attack is complete.
25. After a minute of activation, the laser turns off automatically to cool down. You can turn it off manually beforehand by pressing RShift + O. The green lamp will blink while the laser is in the cooling cycle. Once the cooling cycle is complete, the green lamp will turn off and the laser can be activated again.
26. The lower part of the WCS Panel contains three windows that display the amount of ammunition remaining as follows:
- outer external gun pods
- inner external gun pods
- internal gun
Note that the ammunition remaining is displayed in quarters:
K fully loaded
3/4 75% remaining
1/2 50% remaining
H3 (Russian NZ) -- Low
//// -- None
27. As you can see, the Su-25 is armed with a wide array of effective gun solutions that allow it to engage many types of ground targets.
1. Welcome to this Su-25 training lesson on the employment of unguided bombs.
2. You can take control at anytime by pressing the "ESC" key.
3. Press the "PAUSE" key to pause the lesson.
4. The Su-25 is armed with unguided bombs of various types and sizes. The aircraft can be loaded with up to 4,300 kg. of ordnance.
5. The Su-25 is a reliable and easy to fly aircraft, making weapons employment rather straight forward.
6. Select air-to-ground mode by pressing "7".
7. Press "D" to select RBK-500 cluster bombs, which are currently loaded on the inboard wing stations. These bombs are designed to be used against groups of vehicles.
8. The red warning light indicates that it is dangerous to release the weapon under current conditions because we are inside the blast fragmentation zone.
9. The moving triangle on the targeting reticle indicates our current bank angle up to 30-degrees.
10. I'm now setting up our approach for a dive bombing run.
11. Let's configure the Weapons Control System (WCS).
12. Press "LCTRL + Space bar" to set the desired Ripple Quantity as follows:
"Пo-1" (Russian "Po-1") to release in singles.
"Пo-2" (Russian "Po-2") to release in pairs.
"Пo-4" (Russian "Po-4") to release in fours.
and "Все" (Russian "All") to release all bombs of the selected type.
13. We'll select to release in fours by setting the switch to "Пo-4" (Russian "Po-4").
14. Press "V" to set the Ripple Interval as follows:
"Залп" (Russian "Salvo") to release the entire quantity at once.
"0.1" to release in intervals of 1/10th of a second.
"0.2" to release in intervals of 2/10th of a second.
"0.3" to release at an interval of 3/10th of a second.
And "0.4" to release at intervals of 4/10th of a second.
When using a cluster container or bomb rack, select the "Серия КМГУ/МБД" (Russian "KMGU/MBD Series") setting to release from all stations, but one at a time and sequentially.
15. We'll select the 4/10th of a second interval by setting the switch to "0.4".
16. The Su-25 does not enjoy a great thrust-to-weight ratio, so we need considerable distance to be able to reach a useful altitude for dive bombing, which is approximately 2,500 m. For best results, the dive angle should be around 40 degrees and a speed of around 675 km/h. Flaps should be extended to the Maneuver position, or half-flaps.
17. Press "F" to extend the flaps to the Maneuver position.
18. Initiating our dive toward the target. If the dive is performed correctly, the reticle should appear on the gun sight.
19. Maneuver the aircraft to place the reticle over the target and hold down the "Space" bar.
20. The orange lamp indicates Launch Authorized! Release! Keep holding the "Space" bar until all the bombs have been released.
21. For our next pass, we'll try level-bombing by using the Continually Computed Release Point (CCRP) mode.
We'll use FAB-100 light-weight, blast-fragmentation bombs. In this case, they are loaded on Multiple Ejector Racks (MER) with 4 bombs each. We'll set the Ripple Interval switch to the setting designed for this purpose.
22. Let's first set the Ripple Quantity to "All."
23. The "KMGU/MBD Series" switch configures the release such that weapons will come off one station only after the previous station has been unloaded.
24. Lining up our target approach.
25. Activate the laser by pressing "RShift + O". The green lamp confirms laser activation.
26. Maneuver the aircraft to place the reticle over the target and hold down the "Space" bar or trigger.
27. Keeping the trigger held down, fly the aircraft so that the triangular director stays centered. This will keep us on target.
28. The range scale around the reticle indicates times until release. An audible tone will be heard 2 seconds before release.
29. Release! The weapons are released automatically, but you must keep holding down the trigger until all the bombs have been released.
30. After being active for one minute, the laser will turn off automatically to cool. You can turn it off earlier by pressing "RShift + O" again. The green lamp will blink while the laser is cooling. Once the cooling cycle is complete, the green lamp will turn off and the laser can be activated again.
31. To let you practice bombing with the Su-25, we will come in for a landing to re-arm.
32. As you can see, the Su-25 can employ unguided bombs effectively and with precision in good visibility conditions. Combined with deadly munitions and good armor protection, this makes it a dangerous aircraft on the modern battlefield.
33. Coming in for landing...
34. Coming to a full stop. Re-arming is only possible after the aircraft has come to a stop.
35. When stopped, contact ground personnel to request re-arming.
36. Take-off.
1. Welcome to this Su-25 training lesson on the employment of laser-guided missiles.
2. You can take control of the aircraft or exit the mission by pressing the "ESC" key.
3. Press the "PAUSE" key if you need to pause the lesson.
4. The Su-25 is equipped with three types of laser-guided missiles:
The Kh-25ML is used against stationary targets and large ships. The Su-25 can carry up to 4 of these.
The maximum range of this missile is 12 km.
5. The S-25L is used against hardened targets such as bunkers and other reinforced structures. It can also be used against slow moving ships. The Su-25 can carry up to 8 of these missiles. The maximum range of this missile is 6 km.
6. The Kh-29L is a heavy air-to-surface missile that is most often used against heavily hardened targets like such as bunkers, command centers and other underground facilities. It can also be used against large ships. The Su-25 can carry up to 2 of these missiles and the maximum range is 6 km.
7. Our target today is a group of enemy ships. Two ships are moored at the dock and another two have already sailed.
We are armed with 4 S-25L and 4 Kh-25ML for this lesson.
8. We begin by selecting Air-to-Ground mode by pressing "7".
9. Pressing the "D" key will select the S-25L missile.
10. We begin the attack by diving toward the target and extending the airbrakes to help stabilize our dive.
11. Approach the target from a range slightly exceeding our weapon's maximum range, which is 6 km. in the case.
12. Press "RShift + O" to activate the laser. Use the ";" "." ";" "/" keys to slew the targeting reticle toward the target area and press "Enter" to ground-stabilize the reticle in this location. After stabilizing the reticle, a range indicator appears around the reticle, indicating range to target. Carefully adjust the position of the reticle pipper over the target.
13. The orange lamp is lit, indicating that launch is authorized! Fire! ("Space" key).
14. Good hit!
15. The laser has shut down automatically to prevent it from overheating. While the laser is cooling, the green lamp to the left of the gun sight will blink. Once the cooling cycle is complete, the green lamp will turn off and the laser can be activated again. If necessary, the laser can be force-activated before finishing the cooling cycle. To do so, quickly press "RShift + O" 5 times.
16. Change the active weapon to Kh-25ML by pressing "D" once again.
17. These missiles are much better at engaging large, moving targets. Our next target will be a moving ship, sailing at medium speed out of the port.
18. Diving to target...
19. Activating the laser...
Positioning the targeting reticle near the target area and stabilizing with the "Enter" key. Now carefully making adjustments and placing the reticle pipper over the target.
20. Fire!
21. We have to keep the reticle pipper over the target with careful adjustments.
22. Target hit!
23. As you can see, the rather simple targeting system of the Su-25 still allows it to effectively employ guided missiles against various target types.
24. You can now practice using guided missiles against surface targets by engaging the remaining ships.
1. Welcome to the Su-25 training lesson on the use of the R-60M short-range, infrared-guided air-to-air missile in close-range air-to-air combat.
2. You can take control or exit the mission at anytime by pressing the "Esc" key.
3. First, we select the "Fi0" air-to-air combat mode by pressing "6". A targeting reticle appears on the HUD. The reticle indicates the area being scanned by the missile's seeker.
4. To lock a target, maneuver the aircraft to place the target inside of the seeker scan reticle. As soon as the seeker locks onto a target, a Launch Authorized cue will be visible, along with a lock tone.
5. A challenge of using the R-60M is that no target range data is available. Even if the seeker has locked on, the target may be too far away or flying too fast for the missile to catch it. You must best estimate target range and when to fire visually.
6. If the target is within the R-60M engagement range, which is around 2,000 m. against a maneuvering target from the rear hemisphere, fire the missile by pressing the "Space" bar.
7. Target hit!
8. This concludes this training lesson on the employment of the R-60M air-to-air missile.
