North Korean Su-25 attack jets, also called Frogfoot, are Russian planes equivalent to the A-10 Warthog ground attack craft. Many Russian affiliated armies still use this slow-moving and armored aircraft. It carries a variety of armaments to do the dangerous close air support job most relegated to attack helicopters.
Su-25 Attack Jets Training in North Korea
To commemorate the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA), North Korean official media published a film of live-fire testing of various weapons systems, notably training on Frogfoot jets used by the KPA Air Force, reported Military Watch Magazine.
Seen is an aircraft firing barrages of short-range projectiles at a target zone located on an island off the coast of Korea, indicating one of the few appearances of this aircraft variant in Korean media, cited Nationalist Interest.
According to Airforce Technology, North Korea is making the fourth generation MiG-29 Fulcrum which is made under license from Russia.
The Su-25 is one of the final combat aircraft North Korea is reported to have received, with the Soviet Union shipping an estimated 34 soon, well before the collapse of the eastern superpower in the 1990s.
KPA had not acquired additional Soviet jets over several years, which changed after ties began to normalize in the mid-1980s.
Other aerial assets purchased were MiG-23ML and MiG-29 fighters, Tin Shield radar systems, and S-200 and S-125 surface-to-air missile systems.
Modernization of the KPA
The Korean People's Army invested in getting a more improved aerial warfare system affected by the fall of the USSR in 1991; that was made worse by an economic crisis in North Korea from 1994 onwards.
The North Korean Su-25 attack jet, which is subsonic, could be made anywhere it has a license.
It has also seen considerable combat missions across three continents, most notably aiding Russian counterterrorism efforts in Syria and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict that began in February 2022.
The Frogfoot has been compared to the A-10 Warthog of the US and also the Chinese Q-5, like the two others that come armored. Skimming at low altitude and armed with rockets or bombs to fight mechanized infantry.
One ugly plane but very survivable and cheap to maintain than other planes, but the use of unmanned attack drones have done most of the work. UAVs are cheaper and unmanned, so the military's use of manned craft is under study if it is still needed for the job.
North Korea also operates older fighter classes, particularly MiG-19s, in larger numbers as close air support owing to their inadequacy for other tasks and heavy weaponry at close ranges.
The Frogfoot is employed in fewer numbers in the KPA, and the Air Force is the weakest of the military services. The domestic defense industry cannot replace its aging equipment, and ground troop training and doctrine are doubtful to expect an abundance of close air support.
Nonetheless, North Korea has developed alternate solution assets to provide fire support, including 'tank killer' vehicles, a new generation of battle tanks, and some of the world's longest-ranged rocket artillery systems. It can provide more firepower and are also likely to be more bearable than a small number of Su-25 jets. North Korean Su-25 attack jets are not as effective but deployed in small numbers though not a major weapon system.
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