modern A-10C and su-25SM3 have nothing in common with the original variants , much like all modern aircrafts they are equiped with modern avioncs and weapons ,the su-25SM3 for example has a complete ECM suite , an optical sighting system , modern communication systems and the aircaft is capable of using the vast majority of the russian missiles and PGM's .... a picture is worth a billion words .
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Close air support means that the aircraft will provide air cover for advancing troops so you has to be in the vicinity of the batllefield , i don't see the importance of stealth here . an F-35 with it's limited payload won't be usefull .
Indeed this picture worth a billion words. No radar, no pod. Its anti tank weapon is Vikhr missiles with 10 km max range. In order to hit one tank you need to fly directly towards it during the whole missile flight time (28 seconds!). That means by the time missile hits tank you will be closer than 5 km to it. Then in order to hit a second tank you need to turn back then another turn towards the target and again fly towards it until it hits.
Lets imagine we get a task to locate and destroy platoon of tanks 10 kms from frontline.
F-35 gets locations from uavs, radar locks on targets from 40 km. F-35 drops simultaneously 8 SDB-II bombs and turns back to base. 8 tanks are destroyed.
Su-25 gets location but he still needs to search for camouflaged tanks. He makes cuple circles until he finds one tank, then he is flying towards it and launches Vickrs from 10 kms. He needs to cricle again and again for each tank, while everywhere around there are MANPADS, Shorads, fighter jets can appear anytime.
Sorry but its simply a Flinstone stone age compare to F-35.
the russians used the kaliber and the KH-101 to flex its muscles and show and test their newest toys , the su-24/25/34 did the job pretty well .
So Tu-160 is completely useless in local conflicts, unlike the B-2.
the U-2 is not developed to attack third world countries that can be bombed by a super tucano , the main purpose of the U-2 is to penetrate deep into the soviet IADS and to be honnest , with a mere 50 km or 100 km bombs the U-2 will put itself at risk against both air patrols and ground based SAM's .
Low flying B-2 is extremely hard target for detection. Both because of LOS and RCS. B-2 can take missiles too.
the aim behind the tu-160 is to provide the russians with a credible capacity in bombing mainland US while reducing it's vulnerability to the us air force air patrols ..... good luck cathing a tu-160 when it goes supersonic .
Supersonic for Tu-160 is very useless feature. It does not have supercruise like Concord, so it needs to use afterburnes for supersonic - ie very short time. The acceleration time is also high because of its size.