Just had a brainwave....
The Soviet Air Force sees how flexibly Harriers operated in the Falklands and decides to conduct a large scale trial in Afghanistan. The idea is that Yak-38s will operate from dispersed forward STOL bases to provide faast-reacting CAS, and the effectiveness of this will then be evaluated against the "loitering cover" approach represented by the Su-25 ("the grasshoppers against the rooks" as somebody puts it). The V/STOL proponents gloss over the logistics and base security issues, assigning very light forces to the latter role.
It starts off well, but the Mujahadeen quickly figure out where the aircraft are based, just how lightly defended they are, and start launching successful rocket and mortar attacks against them, destroying a number of aircraft. The general in charge of the "grasshopper" force feels he can't ask for reinforcements without it looking like a failure politically, so the base defence teams are told sharply to raise their game.
The base defence teams are very lightly equipped and largely with the wrong equipment, principally anti-aircraft weapons. The Zu-23 AAA guns are useful, but they're static and there arn't enough to cover the perimter of every base. The heaviest armour they have is the BRDM-2 scout car, but it's two machine-guns, which lack elevation, arn't enough. However the teams do have access to their squadrons' workshops and armories, so one enterprising young office comes up with a plan.
On the base defence teams' standard TOE are several SA-9 SAM vehicles, based on the BRDM-2 hull, which are basically a waste of space in the current situation since there are no enemy aircraft to shoot at. He therefore orders that the vehicles' missile boxes be removed and replaced with either a pair of UV-57 rocket pods or a pair of UPK-23 cannon pods as used on the
Forgers. These prove a great success. The vehicles can quickly race to wherever an attack is happening and return fire quickly. If the attack is from rockets or mortars, then the UV-57 vehicles are used to plaster the launch area with their own rockets in classic "katyushka" style. If the attack is direct fire from snipers or machine-guns, then the cannon-pod vehicle can outgun them in return. As for a direct assault, well the Mujahadeen only tried that once.....
