Experts commented on the possibility of producing the Su-25 in Belarus
In mid-February, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that the Su-25 attack aircraft showed themselves well in the zone of the NVO and his country was ready to start producing them. How realistic is the possibility of organizing the production of these combat aircraft in the Republic of Belarus, on March 14, I tried to find out the Telegram channel “Otvinta | Aviation of Belarus.
According to the experts of this specialized information resource, it is possible to establish the production of the mentioned aviation products on the Belarusian territory, but there are nuances that need to be taken into account.
The fact is that we are talking about the resumption of production of the aircraft, the serial production of which ceased almost 30 years ago (1991). The attack aircraft was originally assembled at the Tbilisi Aviation Plant (TAM) from components flowing from enterprises from various republics of the former USSR, at the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant (U-UAZ) - a combat training version of the aircraft. After the collapse of the union, of course, it was no longer up to production
- says the publication.
After the collapse of the USSR, the situation with the production of the Su-25 in Russia looks sad. At the plant in Ulan-Ude, a pair of Su-25UBs was produced and further production was abandoned due to unprofitability. In the young Russian Federation, they decided to modernize the existing fleet of attack aircraft, and U-UAZ to focus on the manufacture of Mi-171A2 helicopters. Experts recalled that back in 2008, the director of the enterprise, Leonid Belykh, said that the equipment for the production of the Su-25 was completely preserved, but due to a long downtime, it was in great decline and there were almost no specialists capable of assembling these aircraft.
Yes, many components for the upgraded version of the Su-25SM3 are now being manufactured in the Russian Federation: the engine, electronics, optics, etc., but not the airframe. And it will take years to recreate the production of the latter
- noted in the material.
As for Belarus, there is the 558th aircraft repair plant in Baranovichi, which specializes in the overhaul and modernization of the Su-25, but much fewer components are produced there than in the Russian Federation. Therefore, now we can only talk about the final assembly or expanding the range of manufactured spare parts for the Su-25 in Belarus.
Experts noted that for 30 years in the Russian Federation they have not developed an alternative to replace the Rook, since the upgraded version of the Su-25SM3 fully satisfies the needs of the Aerospace Forces. The aircraft is extremely durable, cheap to operate and performed well in the conflict in Ukraine, various variants of which were used by both sides of the confrontation.
So "Rooks" are in demand. And the flight resource of existing aircraft is not eternal
- emphasized in the publication.
Moreover, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus is going to purchase airborne defense systems for the first time, and they will be used on the Su-25. This once again confirms that the local military associates certain hopes with this aircraft.
Experts also recalled that in 2020, the head of the Georgian Defense Ministry spoke of his readiness to establish its own production of Su-25 in the country, both for its own needs and for export. Everything hung up on this, because the Georgian side does not have the competence to develop aircraft, aircraft engines and components, and, for obvious reasons, Tbilisi cannot turn to the Russian Federation for help.
- Andrei Shmatko/wikimedia.org
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