Citat:
The Su-34 "Fullback" AKA the star of the show.
The star of the Russian Air Force bomber/ground attack assets, capable of delivering a payload of 11.8 Tons putting slightly behind the star of the USAF bomber/ground attack fleet the F-15E by just 200Kg (Some sources claim the Su-34 can carry 12 Tons of payload as well however), and a ferry range of 4000km and a combat sortie range (Combat Radius) of 1100km (Putting just below of its American counterpart by 170Km, a magnificent feat)
However we are here to discuss its military capability, and so far it is the only military aircraft operated by the Russians that can reach western level of precision in delivering munitions, and for good reason, as the Su-34 employs the French built Thales Democles pod purchased by Russia in 2012 to be fitted in the Su-34source. The Su-34 is thus capable of delivering highly precise air strikes on the level of western and western-aligned countries airforces
...
However the Su-34 suffers from a high maintenance/flight hour ratio at 4/1, making its continued use in the battlefield require extra care due to its special capabilities that currently no other aircraft on the SAA side can come close to.
The Su-30SM "Flanker-C" AKA the Air-Air champion of the Russian Air Force.
However we are here to discuss its bombing capability, and while it is truly the second best in the lot after the Su-34 in that function, its deployment numbers highly suggest that it doesn't have any bombing role, but here to escort the other bombers and act as a playing card in case of accidents in the highly cluttered Syrian airspace.
...
Well for starters, the Su-30SM carries a built-in Kaira-24M family of laser designator which is so notoriously bad that AirForces belonging to other nations who use this aircraft has opted to use external laser designator, like Malaysia using the Thales Democles pod, and India using the Israeli Litening pod.
The Su-24M2 "Fencer" AKA the Legacy of Russia's Bombers in its twilight.
the fencer can carry 8000Kg of Payload, putting it at 500Kg more than the F-16, but a Combat Radius of 650Km put it in somewhat of a relatively small reach combared to more modern Russia aircrafts and its western counterparts, which suggests that these aircrafts were mainly brought for the purpose of the defense of Latkia and Al-Ghab Plain radius, or in the Northern Homs pocket frontline mostly, if we are to measure their effective range and placements.
The Su-24M2 also carried the obsolete Kaira-24M built in laser designator, with the notoriously bad resolution that pilots would not be even able to carry out day mission bombing let alone night missions, and thus the Fencer mainly if only carries Dumb bombs to hit its targets, assisted by drones to increase its accuracy and delivery
...
while the drones significantly increase the effectiveness of ordinance delivery through dumb bombs it is thus an increase over the SyAF previous glorified artillery role of bombing an area/grid in the hopes of hitting anything there, it is however still far from close to being as effective as real Laser Guided Bomb delivery, employed by western and western-aligned nations.
The Su-25 "Frogfoot" AKA Fly low, fly slow.
The upgrade is not a laser designation upgrade however, it is a navigation/ground attack upgrade that is flaunted to increase the effectiveness of airstrike CEP by a 15 meters Radius from the target, using satellite correction of the aircraft and more atomization of the bomb release. However the system is still using dumb bombs, and heavily relies on the UV-32-57 57 mm or B8M1 80 mm rocket pods to deliver its ordinance on a target grid. Which is something the rebels have adapted to well over the years.
