The successful tactical adaptation keeps pilots beyond Russian air defense range.
Yuri Zoria
January 3, 2025
Euromaidan Press
Forbes reports that the Ukrainian air force has successfully transformed its surviving Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack jets into standoff precision bombers using French-made AASM Hammer glide bombs, the Ukrainian Air Force’s footage shows.
The success of precision munitions has led to their adoption across Ukraine’s Soviet-era fleet, including MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters and Su-24 Fencer bombers. The Air Force’s newer Western aircraft, including Lockheed Martin F-16s and upcoming Dassault Mirage 2000s, are also expected to be compatible with American and French glide bombs.
According to the recent video footage, the Soviet-era single-seat Su-25 aircraft is conducting precision strikes on Russian targets using winged bombs with 250-kg warheads.
This follows similar footage showing Ukrainian Su-27 Flanker fighters using American-made GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs.
The Ukrainian pilots of both types of aircraft employ specific tactics, flying low and fast toward the front line while hugging the terrain to avoid Russian air defense detection. The aircraft climb at the last moment before releasing their bombs. While Hammer bombs can potentially travel over 70 km under optimal conditions, Ukrainian conditions rarely allow this maximum range, Forbes notes.
Three years into the all-out war, Ukraine has been successful in preserving its air assets. At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the Ukrainian Air Force had 43 operational Su-25s and later received 18 additional airframes from North Macedonia and Bulgaria. Despite losing at least 20 aircraft, leaving approximately 41 in service, notably only three or four losses occurred last year, according to Forbes.
Forbes says that in 2024, the Ukrainian Su-25 force “apparently” completed a major tactical overhaul, abandoning close rocket attacks in favor of standoff bombing with Hammer and other glide bombs.
Yuri Zoria is a philologist by education, in 2003-2007 Yuri worked as a journalist in a Luhansk online media. He was born and lived all his life in the peaceful provincial city of Luhansk, where nothing serious happened. Until 2014. Now he is an IDP (Internally Displaced Person).