Although this is still a top knotch CAS for now there will be a time it will need to be retired. What do you think will be the replaced. Are there any long term plans for a replcement in development? Or will it be replaced with the LMFS or Su-50 just as the americans plan to do with their A-10s?
In terms of stealthy I think what they mean as a stealthy replacement for the Su-25 will not be something like the F-35 at all.
They know that very high speed (ie supersonic) aircraft are just too fast and that the best performance comes from low and slow aircraft... though they didn't want as slow as the A-10.
I think whatever they come up with will still be well armoured and the stealth will focus on thermal stealth and visible stealth.
In the mean time I think they will add DIRCMs to the Su-25 to protect it from IR guided SAMs and AAMs, and I also think they will add some of the radar and EO systems that they have been fitting to their new attack helos, and associated weapons.
I suspect they might adapt the wing pylons to allow two lots of clusters of ATGMs to be carried like Vikhr or Hermes or Krisantema. 8 to a pylon for Vikhr and Krisantema and 4 to a pylon for the much heavier Hermes.
I also think a range of light air to ground missiles like Kh-25 could be developed with TV and IIR guidance.
I rather suspect that a new 45mm gun based on the new weapon for the BMP could be adapted for use by the aircraft. There were plans in the 1980s for such a weapon and the Il-104 was supposed to be fitted with either a 45mm calibre weapon or a 57mm gun for anti armour use, but it was decided that the best way to deal with tanks was cluster bombs with guided anti tank munitions.
I have seen a few models which included a forward swept wing model with two fuselages and therefore also two noses and two cockpits where one nose had a radar and the other had optics and other sensors and the large gap between the two noses joined together at the air intake and the large internal space was where the weapons were carried... internally.
Another model... which I personally liked better had a fuselage very similar to the current Su-25 but it had a rear mounted straight wing with a single tail mounted engine with a large contra rotating pusher propeller. The wing was covered in weapon hard points and the nose had two sets of canards. The model was all black and appeared to have a hinge on the wing... suggesting a folding wing arrangement for possible naval use.
If no what do you think will be the major requirements for a future CAS? Will increased performance and payload, better armor and reduced RCS play a factor in designing a replacement or will more advanced avionics,targeting systems and ordnance be the main factor? However I'm expecting the answer will be that the Su-25 will still be a top knotch aircraft for its role for decades to come with continuousadvances in ordnance and electronics updates and it wont ever need to be replaced.
The Su-25 is a good aircraft, though it has shown itself to be vulnerable to MANPADS.
To its credit it often gets the pilot home anyway, but not being hit in the first place is better than being able to take a hit.
Having said that I wouldn't remove the armour.
As mentioned in TR-1s post after yours they have plans for a new aircraft, but they also have plans to upgrade the existing aircraft too.
I don't think carrying more payload or more armour would improve the aircraft in its current role.
I do think improved targeting systems and self defence systems would make it better.
Add the President-M self defence suite with six turrets... two on the wing tips and two on the back of the aircraft and one at the base of the tail and one under the nose... putting them on the belly they would be blocked by the ordinance. The wingtip mounts can cover the lower quadrant including threats from the ground and sides from the air and ground while the turrets on the back of the aircraft can protect from aerial threats or when the aircraft is banking, and the turrets on the tail and under the nose fill in potential gaps and give overlaps in some areas... which is also good.
In addition to IR guided missiles of course in Georgia there were reports that the Su-25s that were lost might have been lost to BUK, which means radar guided missile protection (which president-M already achieves) but an extra jammer pod or two wouldn't hurt.
As datalink technology is added to ground forces it needs to be added to their support units and the Su-25 is no exception. With radar and EO sensors added it would be useful for the Su-25 pilot to transmit his view in terms of a combined picture from EO, Radar, and digital map that can be transmitted to the commander on the ground, who can use this aerial composite picture so he can designate targets on the map/video/thermal image for the pilot to attack.
Their primary focus is to support the ground forces and new weapons on the way should help them do that better with Hermes and Krisantema and possibly even Kornet-EM being very useful additions to the air to ground options.
As I mentioned above a 45mm cannon could also be added, though they might leave that to the new aircraft to replace the Su-25 rather than as an update.
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