Su-25T Frogfoot

An advanced upgrade testbed for the venerable Su‑25 “Frogfoot”, the anti-tank T (Танковы) model was never actually mass produced, but is nevertheless the most common aircraft in DCS due it coming included with the free DCS World install.

Like the base Su-25 model, it is a simplified “Flaming Cliffs”-style simulation, more designed to be controlled through a standardised set of keyboard shortcuts than through any kind of advanced set of peripherals. It does not feature an interactive “clicky” cockpit.

Features

The Su-25T is much more focused on missiles and smart weapons than the base Frogfoot, and is therefore suited for a much wider arrange of ground-attack missions. Until HARM:s were added to the Hornet module, it was also the only proper SEAD platform in the game (the Harrier's Sidearm missiles lack the range to really count).

The Frog offers:

• A full assortment dumb munitions, rockets, and dispensers and enough carrying capacity to take out a small continent with them.
• TV and laser guided missiles and bombs tied to the “Shkval” electro-optical targeting and “Mercury” night operation systems.
• Short and medium range anti-radiation missiles tied to the “Fantasmagoria” elint pod for SEAD missions.
• A normally useless Russian RWR that will actually be useful for once, since it can guide you to where the SEAD missiles need to go.

Comes with the built-in campaign Georgian Oil War.

Flying the Su-25T

Rule #1 of the Su-25: get any notion of flying a fighter jet out of your mind. You are a bomb truck. You deliver lots and lots of things that go boom — slowly and preferably not uphill. You are not fast, nor agile, and when fully loaded, small hills can quickly become very threatening obstacles unless you prepare for them well in advance. But you carry a lot of munitions and you can kill silly amounts of targets.

A shockingly reasonable loadout can include 12 ‘Vikhr’ laser-guided anti-tank missiles, 2 KMGU submunition dispensers for area saturation against soft and hard targets, 2 heavy TV-guided bombs, 40 rockets, and 2 air-to-air missiles or ECM pods for self-defence purposes.

Cockpit overview

Getting into the air

(Originally posted by Thief.)

First of all, this game may have a ridiculously high learning curve but if all you want to do is fly around before bothering to learn all the spergin' bullshit then I can help get to the point where you are able to take off in under a minute more often than not.

Quick Startup/Takeoff

• Get in a Su-25T.
  If on a multiplayer server, select the plane from the scrolling list and click ‘Briefing’ then click ‘Fly’.
• RShiftL to turn on all the confusing electronic shit in front of you.
  You need this to see your HUD and other important crap like engine RPM meters.
• RShiftHome to start both engine at the same time.
  RShiftEnd to stop both engines at the same time. RAlt/RCtrl + Home/End controls the left/right engines separately.
• LCtrlC to close the canopy.
  Unless for some reason you need to change loadout/refuel, then see below for more info. Don't worry about it if you simply want to get into the air.
• Wait for the engines to get going.
  Your RPM gauges should go to '4' before settling into an idle state. There's actually two overlapped needles here for each engine.
  
• Slightly throttle up and drive slowly to the runway. Default throttle keys are Num+/Num- if your joystick throttle is not yet mapped.
  Press W to use your Wheel Brakes. Try to stay on the road. If you go too fast, you will drag a wing when turning and that fucks your shit up!
• Full throttle until you're going real fast-like.
  You can press LShiftF to toggle your takeoff flaps down. I think LCtrlF raises them, I forget.
• Pull back on the stick to take-off.
  For future reference, you want all joystick movements to be gentle as possible. Some planes risk dragging their tail on the ground when taking off too aggressively.
• LCtrlG to raise your landing gear.
  Them's your wheels, dude.
• Have fun crashing your plane over and over until you get bored of this.
  You can press CtrlE three times if you need to eject.

Change Loadout/Fuel

• You MUST be landed with your engines off and have your canopy open.
  That's 0 RPM. LCtrlC toggles open/closes the canopy.
• LAlt' opens the loadout window:
  
• Pick stuff.
  Actually using these weapons is a whole new can of worms.
• Wait for it to load.
  You can check the progress by simply looking at your wings/fuel gauge. If you close the canopy or start the engines it will cancel the process and you'll likely be sitting there with an uneven load... which can be fun if you like goofing around with the FM.
• Now go through the start up procedure again.
  It's not so bad once you get used to it.

Shooting something

Launching a Vikhr.

The Su-25T uses much the same weapon selection and targeting process as the other FC3 aircraft, with some added complexity when using its laser rangefinder.

• Press 7 to go into AG mode.
  (6 will select AA mode where the gun and R-73s or R-60s can be employed.)
• Press D to cycle through available weapons.
  (For dumb weapons, that is really all there is — just fly the aiming cue onto the target and pickle.)
• Press O to turn on the electro-optical display.
  (If using anti-radiation weapons, press I to also turn on the Fantasmagoria pod.)
• Use the ;, ,, . and / keys to slew the seeker head around.
  (A cue representing the current aim point will appear on the HUD and can be used to get the seeker in the right general area.)
• Press Enter to ground-stabilise over (or near) a target and start the locking process.
  (The seeker can still be slewed, but using the TV display to do final adjustments will be easier. The targeting reticle can be resized to better match the target. Once a target is detected and tracked, the reticle will vibrate.)
• If using laser-guided weapons, press RShiftO to turn on the laser.
• Steer the aircraft to cover the HUD targeting cue with the launch zone circle.
• When correct launch parameters are achieved, the HUD and EO display will show “LA” to signify that launch is authorised.
  (The Russian cockpit will show “ПР”)
• Press RAltSpace to pickle.
• After splash, press RShiftO to turn the laser off.
  (Leaving the laser on for too long will burn it out.)

For dumb bombs, there are some additional controls that can be used to change how many will be rippled off at once. Consult the manual and keybinds to see how this is done.

An interesting but little known fact is that the Su-25T can make use of buddy lasing to identify and even deliver weapons on target. Any target lased (be it via JTAC or through a buddy lasing aircraft) using code 1113 will show up in the HUD overlaid with a diamond symbol, and any of the regular laser-guided missiles (Kh-29L, Kh-25ML, and S-25L, but not the beam-riding Vikhr) can be launched at those targets from manual override mode.

More information

• Sukhoi Su-25T on wikpedia.
• Su-25 FROGFOOT Grach (Rook) on globalsecurity.org
• Robert Sogomonian's Su-25T video tutorial series.