Su-25

Record

Conflict relevance

This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the modules below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.

Operators

Malian Armed Forces (FAMa): Small number delivered by Russia from August 2022; at least one lost in a 2023 crash. · Georgia: Georgia operated the type and hosted its Soviet-era production line at Tbilisi; employed in the 2008 war. · Azerbaijan: Long-standing operator; employment documented in the 2020 Second Karabakh War. · Ukraine: Flown in very low-level lofted-rocket attacks to survive dense air defence; losses have been heavy. · Russia: Su-25SM variants used in the same low-level attack profile.

Battlefield role

Close air support and armed overflight: effective against fixed positions and columns, and a blunt instrument against a dispersed enemy that does not mass.

Strengths

Rugged, simple to operate from austere fields; genuine payload; psychological weight over towns no insurgent aircraft can contest.

Limitations

Unguided-ordnance delivery demands exposure at low level, where the aircraft is most vulnerable; precision depends on the targeting process behind it, not the airframe.

Campaign relevance

Derived: a participant organisation in these campaigns carries a typed equipment association with this system. That is not the same as documented use of the system in the campaign itself.

• Georgia's territorial conflicts — Abkhazia and South Ossetia Since 1991

  via Georgian Defence Forces (Historically associated, high confidence)

Visual identification

Straight wing with wingtip pods, twin engines flanking the fuselage, single tail — the classic “flying tank” silhouette.

Documented conflict use

Publicly displayed at deliveries in Bamako from 2022 and reported in strike operations in the northern and central campaigns; one airframe destroyed in a September 2023 crash at Gao airport.

Branch & service operators

• Georgian Defence Forces Historically associated
• Malian Air Force (Armée de l’Air) Documented