Operation and combat employment of bombs and ASMs in the VVS

Some info how the Su-17M3 worked in Afghanistan.

A representative instance of the Su-17M3R operations in Afghanistan is the 13-month deployment to Bagram in 1986-1987 of one squadron temporarily drawn from the 101st ORAP, home-based at Borzya in Siberia. This particular squadron was among the units that recorded the highest number of losses during the Afghanistan campaign. In the summer months of 1986 its Su-17M3Rs were heavily used in the strike role, with a total bombload of 1000 kg (most often made of two 500-kg bombs) or carrying four 20-round packs for firing B-8 80-mm rockets. Initially, pilots recall, the manual aiming had resulted in low bombing preciseness but as thy gained more and more experience during the later stages of the deployment, precision has been considerably improved - CEP of 30-40 m (98-131 ft) were common occurrence (CEP calculation was made utilising battle damage assessment photos).
 

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