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Su-25 Attack Jet Crash May Point To Wider Russian Airpower Issues

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Video has recently emerged showing the fiery demise of a Russian Su-25 Frogfoot attack jet, moments after taking off from its base, apparently on a mission as part of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Russian aviation expert Piotr Butowski has confirmed that the location of the Su-25 accident was indeed Millerovo air base in Rostov Oblast, drawing the same conclusion as Stefan Büttner. In the image below, the characteristic helicopter operating area can be seen more fully, this time from the… (www.thedrive.com) More...

Tim Eichman
Maxed OutOutspokenPromoterAltruistEnlightenedAnnouncer

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uapilot
uapilot 16
Truly love how all this is exposing the Russian paper-military as the ineffective buffoonery military force they have always been. Even in the days of the USSR they were horribly trained, poorly equipped and manned with morale deficient conscripts. Seriously a 40 mile convoy stopped on a road exposed to attack? Oh what a few A-10s could have done.

I’m thankful we now know how truly bad they are…although I’m heartbroken that so many thousands of innocent Ukrainians have been slaughtered
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johntaylor571
John Taylor 1
Not that I disagree with much of your assessment but I read (and may be wrong) that the 40 mile convoy stopped out of Uke range and sat there for days as a show of force. YMMV.
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uapilot
uapilot 2
You missed the point. It sat there for over a week and the US, if in direct conflict with Russia, would have destroyed in with our A-10s within a day regardless of how far away it is.
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SkyAware123
SkyAware123 3
Cute but... Ever thought about the fact that the Russians knew that Ukraine doesn't have sufficient air power and as such weren't afraid to run big convoys? Totally different story if the US was involved with air power.
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jbsimms
James Simms 2
Don’t even need A-10’s. Don’t we still have Cruise Missiles utilizing Cluster Bomblets? I also don’t believe we’ve signed any treaty outlawing them.
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n555cf
rbt schaffer 5
The pilot deserves a MEDAL....from Ukraine....For saving women and children whose names were on his bombs
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ElliotCannon
Elliot Cannon 4
The effectiveness and capability of the USSR and now Russian military has been way overestimated since about 1949. Good news for our defense industry though.
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skylab72
skylab72 3
Good news for our defense industry?? Sounds to me like their sales and margins should drop significantly...
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sparkie624
sparkie624 10
If they keep this up, UK won't have to waste armaments to shoot them down!
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n555cf
rbt schaffer 3
If it had a red star on the tail I call it a successful mission .... BEFORE it bombed some innocent civilians
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TorstenHoff
Torsten Hoff 5
One analysis of the video that I saw yesterday showed that the left wingtip of the Su-25 on the right was bent down after apparent contact between the two aircraft.
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eichmat
Tim Eichman 9
It could be possible that there was contact at time the trialing aircraft made a sudden upward movement as the lead aircraft started its left bank... Only argument against that is that when they were even with the camera, there was decent separation and I'm not sure that could have closed in the 2-seconds before the sudden upward movement, though it is hard to judge relative speeds in a panning shot, but I'm not sure they were that close to make contact...

The sudden upward motion could have been a reaction to turbulence from wingtip vortices off the lead aircraft. The pilot then over corrected to rejoin formation which then dipped the left wing into the jetwash of the lead aircraft stalling the wing...

Sad for the family--all loss of life is bad... loss of the airframe, I'm not upset about...
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RECOR10
RECOR10 8
I dunno. While I am not saying the Russians are my enemy, they certainly are not my friend. Knowing quite a few folks who currently fly in the US Armed Forces (albeit my brother flies whirly-birds)...rather this than against us down the road.
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sparkie624
sparkie624 5
Watched that video very close on a Large Monitor.... I do not think Wing Tips hit!
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glbunker
Greg Bunker 3
Looks like he lost power just as he made a turn and possibly lost lift and stalled the left wing.
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sparkie624
sparkie624 0
That is a good observation... Could have had a Compressor Stall
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JBI2k4
J B 2
Apart from the crash, the described limitations of the aircraft and munitions it carries helps explain how little help Russia's greater air power has been against Ukrainian land forces - these things cannot chase after or reliably target the HIMARs or various mobile howitzers as might have been expected.
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ianhradcliffe
Ian Radcliffe 2
He flew into wake turbulence from the lead aircraft and was too low to recover.
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johntaylor571
John Taylor 2
Notice that the lead aircraft banked left directing his exhaust blast straight at the crash aircraft.
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SkyAware123
SkyAware123 2
garbage like everything else russian made.
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EB333
Erik Bruner 2
Su-75 first flew in 1975
This incident is of absolutely NO reflection of Russia's capabilities.
How many 20 year old US aircraft have flown into the ground?
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SkyAware123
SkyAware123 2
lolz. Nope, it means nothing compared to all the other failures they have on the battlefield. missiles that fail. missiles that miss targets by huge margins. 'latest and greatest' jets that get shot out of the air. Troops that don't want to fight/cant fight.
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jbsimms
James Simms 1
Well…. That had to hurt & ruin the press of a freshly starched flight suit……
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johntaylor571
John Taylor 1
It looked to me that the incident aircraft had a small burst of excess exhaust smoke just before it went sideways and as it went it, it looked like no smoke at all compared to the aircraft still flying. Could have been an engine anomaly and lost thrust enough to lose control. I wish was able to slow the video down a bit to verify.
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johntaylor571
John Taylor 1
Edit: He may have have an engine malfunction from the exhaust blast due to the lead aircraft when banking left, directed his exhaust blast straight at the crashed aircraft nose.
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pandatops
David Ismael Arias 1
Russians SUCK, always did, always will.
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ianedge
Ian Edge -1
I don't know what "SUCK" means but it sounds derogatory.
The ordinary Russian people are some of the nicest you could wish to meet, and all the above has nothing to do with this accident.
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n555cf
rbt schaffer 4
They almost had me fooled too. But bombing and shelling civilian apartments, mass Graves full of executed civilians, raping and looting. Seems there is much lacking in their society and much their mamas didn't teach them.
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jamesnewua
James New 3
Russians applied collective guilt to Germany for World War II. Russia is complicit in the murder of children, women, the elderly, rape and the destruction of civilian homes. Let's not forget MH17, which Russia still denies.
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SkyAware123
SkyAware123 0
Then why they put up w a dictator?
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sparkie624
sparkie624 0
Depends on how you use it... Basically is what he is saying, is that the Russians have petty capabilities with their planes, or it could be that the Maintenance on the plane is substandard as well.. You need to read closer some of the comments, One that I posted was that I watched the video on a very large monitor and to me, I do not believe the wing tips touched. We will probably never realize the true cause, I am venture to the conclusion that the pilot was in a low altitude maneuver and lost control, or a Wing hit something... Another idea is that he could have lost an engine and not been able to pull out of the Maneuver very easily.
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chugheset
chugheset 0
What department within the military comes up with these ridiculous code names for Russian aircraft (e.g., Frogfoot)? I envision a lonely bureaucrat sitting in a dark room in the basement of the Pentagon whose phone rings and some general says "Hey Larry, we've got a new model."

Is he the same guy that comes up with the names for military exercises (e.g., Operation Gothic Serpent)?
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jfmitch1716
Jim Mitchell 3
Been around for a few decades.
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charlie02vy
Charlie Roberts 3
It is actually, NATO that comes up with the names.
F-names are used for Fighter aircraft.
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mikehe
Mike Hindson-Evans 2
Standatd function if NATO "know thine enemy" intelligence, down the decades.

Surprised that, as a contributor on this website, you were unaware.
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SkyAware123
SkyAware123 0
What loser commments on the names given to russian aircraft?
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ianedge
Ian Edge 0
I hope the pilot ejected safely, there doesn't seem to be gen on this
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SkyAware123
SkyAware123 2
nope. and a good russian is a dead russian
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w2bsa
w2bsa 0
Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that the pilot was able to eject.
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ianedge
Ian Edge 1
Oh dear, thanks friend .
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flybd5juan
Juan Jimenez 0
There was no contact between the aircraft. That was just garden variety pilot stupidity, overcorrecting first in pitch, then bank, leading to a stall and an auger into the ground.
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tel001
tel001 0
It looks like loss of power on takeoff, Stall/spin to the left. That happens when your automatic reaction to power reduction is pull up and or try to return to base.
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skylab72
skylab72 -2
BTW folks, if you have never been in combat, contain your speculation about battlefield events. You have no frame of reference.
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[This poster has been suspended.]

SkyAware123
SkyAware123 -2
fainting 30 seconds into it ? at that low speed ? Not a tight turn ? Are you an armchair pilot ?wtf
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