Azerbaijan Air Force Tübitak-Sage KGK-83 test

On the 9th of May, an Azerbaijani Air Force Su-25BM ‘Frogfoot’ took off from Konya carrying two Tübitak-SAGE KGK-83 wing-assisted guidance kits. The Tübitak Defence Industries Research and Development Institute (SAGE) developed the guidance kit back in 2013 for the Turkish Armed Forces. A KGK is a wing-assisted guidance kit that converts existing unguided 1000 lb Mk-83 and 500 lb Mk-82 general purpose bombs into long-range, air-to-ground smart weapons, providing aircraft to release a bomb without entering into an enemy air defence zone, with the capability to  precisely hit targets from a hundred kilometre.

The Azerbaijani Su-25 fleet are being modernised in Türkiye to Su-25BM and the implementation of a guidance kit enhances the capability for aircraft like the Sukhoi Su-25 which are initially intended for Close Air support (CAS) missions and are then less vulnerable for MANPADS and other Surface Based Air Defence (SBAD) systems. The Sukhoi Su-25 carried a pair of Airborne Defence Suit (ADS) Talisman pods that are used to cope with these threats. During the test on the 9th of May, the KSK-83 was released from a distance of twenty-five kilometres.