AirForces Monthly – September 2019

Su-25 operators Part 6

Fleet

Survey

narcotics-carrying aircraft.

In 1999 and 2000, the Peruvian

Frogfoots were rushed into action

again to reinforce the nation’s

anti-narcotics campaign, which

now included wider use of air

force assets. The Su-25 boasts

good manoeuvrability in the

horizontal plane, thanks to its

straight wings and useful thrust-

to-weight ratio, which in turn

enables it to easily undertake

intercepts of general aviation

aircraft smuggling raw cocaine

and cocaine paste from the Upper

Huallaga Valley in the northern

part of Peru to neighbouring

Colombia. The first shoot-down

of a drug-carrying aircraft was

claimed on July 18, 2000, in an

area north of the capital Lima.

An attrition loss of a single-

seater is thought to have

occurred on May 26, 2006.

Some of the Su-25UB two-

seaters were upgraded by the

558 Aircraft Repair Plant (ARZ)

company in Belarus to use the

Alexander Mladenov

concludesourseries

profilingSu-25

operatorsaroundthe

world,examiningtwo

oftheFrogfoot’smore

exoticcustomers:Peru

andNorthKorea.

Peru

T

Rest of the world

66 // September 2019 #378 http://www.airforcesmonthly.com

he Peruvian air arm, the

Fuerza Aérea del Perú

(FAP), took delivery of 18

ex-Belarusian Su-25s in 1998,

including ten single-seaters and

eight two-seaters. Originally built

for Soviet service between 1987

and 1991, the aircraft equipped

Escuadrón Aéreo 112 of Grupo

Aéreo 11, stationed at Talara-El

Pato air base in northwest Peru.

Not long after their arrival, these

Frogfoots saw use in combat, in

an innovative role, intercepting

66-69 SU25Survey AFM Sep2019.indd 66 8/5/2019 9:54:45 AM