Saint-Petersburg. June 25. INTERFAX - Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to retrofit Su-25 aircraft in service with the Belarusian army in Russia and begin training flight personnel.
"The Belarusian army is armed with a fairly large grouping of Su-25 aircraft. They could be retrofitted accordingly and the training of flight personnel could begin accordingly," Putin said during the Russian-Belarusian high-level talks on Saturday.
"This modernization should be carried out at aviation plants in Russia. We will agree on how to do this," he stressed.
The Su-25 "Grach" armored attack aircraft (according to the NATO codification: Frogfoot - "Frog's Foot") is designed for direct support of ground forces over the battlefield with direct visibility of the target, as well as the destruction of mobile and stationary ground objects with specified coordinates and low-speed air targets.
The crew is one person.
Serial aircraft of this type were produced in the USSR at two aircraft factories - in Ulan-Ude (combat training Su-25UB) and in Tbilisi (combat Su-25). In total, 1 thousand 320 copies of the Su-25 were built in 1981-1991.
It was reported that the Russian Air Force has 14 squadrons armed with Su-25 attack aircraft, their total number is about 200 aircraft. More than 80 attack aircraft have been upgraded to the Su-25SM variant, which has proven itself well in a real combat situation in Syria.
