Rooks in Afghanistan tells the story of the aircraft and crews of units of the Soviet Air Force equipped with the Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft. A total of 582 single-seat Su-25s were manufactured for the Soviet Air Force and 180 for export – all at Factory 31, in Tbilisi, in the Soviet Republic of Georgia, between 1978 and 1989. They formed the backbone of the Soviet attack fleet and bore the brunt of combat operations during the Afghan War of the second half of the 1980s.