SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Feature: The Su-25 "Grach": Russia's Little Rook

The best, and as far as I know the only, simulated version of the Su-25 other than a very early Microprose sim based on the LHX helicopter sim-architecture is found in Eagle Dynamics' Lock On series of combat simulations. In its current iteration, version 1.2a, the Su-25 benefits from an advanced flight model developed for the Su-25T in that game, a later version of the Rook. Flying it, I find that the original 1980s Rook is highly maneuverable even when carrying a lot of stores. Even loaded, it takes off using a short runway and is stable as you rotate and pull up the gear, though you need to dial in a little right rudder as you firewall the throttles to begin the takeoff run, and I'm not sure why that is. It is known that unloaded and clean, the Rook can approach Mach 1 in level flight, and can punch through the sound barrier in a dive. It is very handy and docile on approach to a landing, and its twin drogue chutes assist in stopping it in a very short time. It tolerates a lot of abuse in the air, and will operate at high angles of attack and very low speeds without flaming out or misbehaving. It will not stall easily, and tends simply to fall off to one side or another rather than the vicious snap-stall that high-performance aircraft often enter in a high AoA state. The Rook can take an incredible amount of punishment and stay in the fight. It has redundant hydraulic and electrical systems, and unless you take really stupid chances, it'll bring you home. All in all, it is small wonder that the Russians love this airplane so much, it is absolutely reflective of all the values that the Russian culture holds most dear.

Lock On Su-25 "Grach"

In my opinion, the Su-25 gets overlooked a lot by Lock On pilots, who tend toward the Su-25T or A-10 for their ability to use television-guided munitions. Give the Rook a shot, pilots — you'll find that it handles better than the T, because it is lighter — the T is overloaded and underpowered for its weight. The Rook continues today in service in Russia, the Ukraine, and Georgia in the same configuration as it ended its Afghanistan service. It is also known to serve in the air forces of Iran, Syria, several African nations, and some former Warsaw Pact countries. It has engaged in combat most recently in Chechnya, and I know of one incident on the Ivory Coast where several Su-25 aircraft were destroyed by French peacekeepers in retaliation for their bombing of French Union forces engaged in operations there. An effective, simple, versatile, rugged, and reliable combat aircraft, Russia's little Rook is still a force to be reckoned with for today's ground troops.

System Specs

AMD Athlon 3000+ processor
MachSpeed N2PAP-Lite motherboard with onboard Aureal AC97 sound
NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT
1GB Kingston PC2700 DDR DRAM
Creative 12x CD-ROM
Maxtor 40GB main drive
DirectX Version 9.0c
Windows XP Home with SP2

The Author thanks both Mr. Greg Goebel and the Federation of American Scientists for their extensive research on this aircraft, which the Author referred to extensively in preparation of this article.

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