The 121th aircraft repair plant located in Moscow Region will upgrade about 12 Su-25 strike-fighters to Su-25SM version, Voenno-promishlenniy courier reports with reference close to the military-industrial sector.

«The enterprise upgraded 12 Su-25 strike-fighters to Su-25SM version in 2012. The same number of the aircraft should be upgraded in 2013», – said the source.

Speaking about the possibility of resuming the production of Su-25SM strike-fighters at the Ulan-Ude aviation plant, the source said that “the enterprise has a full workload at the moment (the enterprise is manufacturing helicopters). That is why it is too early to discuss the resuming of Su-25 production”, - he said.

The Su-25’s upgrade to Su-25SM version includes installation of new navigation target acquisition system (PrNK-25SM “Bars”), which comprises: data processing and display system; satellite navigation system; short-range navigation system; satellite surveillance system; aircraft responder; automatic direction finder; discrete-continuous weapon control system; flight information acquisition and processing system; etc.

Su-25SM is able to perform missions under any lighting conditions out of the bounds of enemy air defense system’s radius. The jet is capable of using high-precision weapons. The guided weapons allow increasing the target range, because the strike-fighter does not have to enter the area of coverage of the anti-aircraft artillery and portable air defense systems. Su-25 is able to engage targets at the distance of 7-8 km, which exceeds the radius of most air defense systems.

The accuracy of navigation and tactical employment of unguided weapons by Su-25SM has increased three times, while the bombing accuracy matches the accuracy of guided weapons. The bombing accuracy during forward flight on the altitude of 200-300 meters will be 10-15 meters. The positional accuracy has reached 15 meters with updating by the navigation satellites (200 meters without updating) thanks to the new inertial navigation system.