this is the greater BS that i have ever heard about the air warfare. All the pilots say teh t the speed is life and i cannot see the big and slow A-10 can survive to a even low level fighter force, while the frogfoot is much smaller and faster, enough to escape quite easily. the A-10 has only the vantage of the better canopy view

Nuke1, flying Su-25 at 900 km/h is simply dangerous because of flaws in control system. Close air support planes like Su-25 and A-10 must fly low and slowly. Range, armament and armor are much more important than speed.

bobo
if the speed is a limit for a Su-25…
let me tell you about the A-10
its airspeed indicator is “a calendar” and when it takes birdstrikes, it sure does but “from behind” 😀
the A-10 speed is NOWHERE NEAR that of the Su-25 🙂
Camaro.

Camaro, su-25 pilots never fly at 900 km/h; there is no need to fly fast and it’s too dangerous.

That’s funny, every English and Russian language source on the Tu-160 hasn’t mentioned that. Care to provide a source?

I heard this information from some former CSAGI employees. Copying of B-1A isn’t a secret.
It wasn’t simply copying of B-1 drawings of course, it’s impossible. The concept and idea of a milti-mode bomber were copied; it was usual way to avoid risky and expensive developing own concept. Soviet designers called that “Follow the Leader”.

It didn’t. Sukhoi had the winning design but were dropped due to concentration on the FLANKER. Tupolev’s design was hated from the start for reasons that may have been more political than technical. Now which of the three was left?

Tupolev proposed a military valiant of Tu-144, and the military hated it of course. Myasischev’s project copied a B-1A concept. Yes, this project was transfered to Tupolev. Original Myasischev’s design was slightly different: it had 4 landing gears and horisontal air inlet wedges. Some people consider original design was better.

It is as a strategic nuclear missile carrier. And as more are introduced and others are upgraded, its capability as a conventional platform will increase as well.

Yes, it can be upgraded, but it isn’t upgrading now. Now BlackJack is simply a good airframe.

A few comments about Tu-160. Tu-160 undoubtedly is a soviet answer to B-1A. On early stages designers simply copied B-1A’s airframe. But soviet industry couldn’t develop lightweight and reliable avionics, weapon and warfare systems and original “B-1-like” airframe was stretched. Size of Tu-160 is its fundamental weakness. Tu-160 is too big and too expensive to normal operation.

Another weakness is warfare systems. They are completely inoperable. The plane can reach 2.5M, but navigation system fails on supersonic speed. Tu-160 should fly on subsonic speed before launch X-55. So it’s “semi-supersonic” plane. Electronic warfare system is another weakness, engines are unreliable. etc.

On the whole, Tu-160 has great airframe, probably the best airframe, but it isn’t a great weapon.