A new impressive satellite image has just been released.It shows at least 12 Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes lined-up on the secondary runway at al-Assad airbase near Latakia, the same airfield hosting the four Russian Air Force Su-30SM multirole combat planes.
| It's one thing to fly them there and line them up; it's another thing to do operations; and it's another thing to supply and sustain an ops tempo. |
It should be noted that the Russian Navy does deploy a number of SU-25/39s, and some of those are navalized for use in aircraft carriers. If these are Russian naval aircraft chances are they will be used in a defensive role at Tartus and Latakia.
It looks like the Frogfoots, the Russian aircraft most suitable for Air Interdiction and potential Close Air Support missions against ISIS have eventually arrived in Syria. They will operate alongside the Su-24 Fencer jets spotted trailing an Il-78/76 plane over Homs on Sept. 20 (not visible in the latest satellite snapshots).
The IL-76 is similar to the US E-3 AWACS, an radar/airborne control platform for directing air combat operations and for air traffic control. The introduction of the IL-76 into Syria by the Russians is significant for those reasons.
According to the most recent reports, as many as 28 Russian planes have already been deployed to Syria. The question is: where are those not exposed by satellite imagery yet.
The bird has long legs, can be refueled in the air, and can be deployed from anywhere.
This is not the first time the Su-25 is deployed in the region to fight IS militants: on Jul. 1, 2014 seven Frogfoot attack planes operated by the Pasdaran (informal name of the IRGC -- the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution) deployed to Imam Ali Airbase, in Iraq, to join the ex-Russian Air Force Su-25s already delivered to Iraq in the air war against ISIS.