This daring strike, in November 1986, was mounted at dawn so that the Su-25 pilots would have sufficient visibility to penetrate Pakistani airspace at ultra-low level and deliver their ordnance using the element of surprise.
The Sukhoi Su-25 Grach (NATO reporting name: Frogfoot) is a twin‑engine, single-seat jet developed by the Soviet design bureau Sukhoi. It was created to provide close air support to Soviet Ground Forces. The first prototype flew on Feb. 22, 1975, and, following testing, full-scale production began in 1978 at a plant in Tbilisi, in what was then the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Despite past criticism over its susceptibility to ground fire, the dependable ‘Frogfoot’ is now widely regarded as the rightful heir to the dedicated ground-attack aircraft first developed during World War II.
Over its more than three decades of service, the Su-25 has taken part in numerous conflicts. It played a major role in the Soviet war in Afghanistan, flying counter-insurgency sorties against Mujahideen forces.
As explained by Alexander Mladenov in his book Su-25 ‘Frogfoot’ Units in Combat, one of the lesser-known Su-25 operations in Afghanistan was a strike mission remembered by then Capt. Alexander Koshkin. In his memoir, Shturmovik, published in Russia in 2012, he disclosed a previously unknown clandestine sortie flown by four Su-25s to launch a surprise attack on a large Mujahideen training camp near Peshawar, deep inside Pakistan. This bold raid, carried out at dawn in November 1986, was timed so the Su-25 pilots would have enough light to slip into Pakistani airspace at very low altitude and deliver their weapons while maintaining the element of surprise.
To conceal the true location of their target and prevent Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighters on QRA in the area from taking off too early, the four-ship Su-25 formation led by Capt. Koshkin departed Bagram at 310 mph in a tight formation, making it appear on Pakistani early-warning radar as a single transport aircraft. They then pretended to fly a landing approach into Jalalabad airfield, close to the Pakistani border, followed by a go-around. At that point, one Su-25 broke away, continuing to mimic a transport aircraft entering a holding pattern over the Surubi Dam. At the same time, the remaining three jets dropped to a very low altitude, stayed below Pakistani radar coverage, crossed the border, and pressed on at 160 ft toward the target. The ‘Frogfoots’ reached the camp undetected and struck with total surprise, each aircraft making four attack runs.
During the first two attack runs, they released bombs; on the third pass, they fired rockets; and on the fourth, the pilots used their built-in 30 mm cannons. The aircraft encountered no ground-based anti-aircraft fire, and all three Su-25s slipped back into Afghan airspace at extremely low altitude long before PAF fighters could respond.
Su-25 ‘Frogfoot’ Units in Combat is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
