Ukrainian Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes fly at insanely low altitude, buzz airport tower!

July 11, 2015 Aviation Safety / Air Crashes, Troubled Areas, War in Ukraine
David Cenciotti

Ukrainian Air Force Su-25s as you have never seen them before!

The following video is pretty impressive.

It shows Ukrainian Air Force Su-25s flying at treetop altitude over Melitopol airbase, in southeastern Ukraine and nearby, in February 2015.

The Frogfoot jets can be seen, from the inside and outside, perform low passes (not as low as the Libyan Mig-23 we have shown here) among the parked Il-76 cargo planes, release flares, fire rockets and even buzz the tower.

Although the Su-25 pilots have to fly at very low-level (where they can be particularly vulnerable to MANPADS as those in the hands of pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine) to perform their Close Air Support missions, some of the passes seem to be a bit too risky!

Watch by yourself.

 

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About David Cenciotti
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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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7 Comments

  2. The rugged little tank of the skies thats immune to just about everything cept MANPADS. From the air too you get an idea the old Russian doctrine about running an airbase in a pretty rugged state. Looks almost derelict.

  3. if they fly this low, are they still a target for MANPADS or is it actually a good tactic to stay safe.

    • MANPADS shooter must first visually acquire the target- flying low delays that piece of the kill chain. Once the SAM is launched, flying low enough allows terrain masking, either direct (duck behind a ridge away from launch site) or indirect (put ridge behind you instead of blue sky to mess with IR guidance). I question the risk/reward of flying at 25ft vs 200ft (ground always has a Pk of 1.0 if you make a
      mistake).

  4. Videos like this serve only to show a severe lack of flight discipline.. which is probably why most of the “INSANE LOW FLYBY!!!!!!” videos on the internet originate from second-rate air forces.

    • Don’t froget propaganda, such videos are mostly made to boost the morale of the civilians, making them think “wow, our pilots are so brave and reckless, let’s kick ass boys !”. Especially when the country is at war (or close to) and suffered air losses, the country needs “aces”, “crack pilots”, or so-called… and a low flyby is always impressive to the public.

      Frogfoots in Ukraine in this video, and that fits also the “insane flyby” performed by the Lybian Flogger, or gopro footage inside Syrian Floggers too. Those 3 air forces have sustained major losses during the past months / years.

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