Hi Piotr
I have this information from the Aerofax Su-25 book by Yefim Gordon:
Page 16:
The creation of a new light assault aircraft in the USSR had not gone unnoticed by Russia's allies in the 'Socialist Brotherhood' of Eastern Europe. A little earlier, Romania had itself offered to design and develop a 'shturmovik' for the Warsaw Pact partner countries. Then, the wish to participate in such a project was intimated by Poland, whose aircraft manufacturing plants at that time were not particularly overburdened with work. In these particular circumstances, the Soviet Union was forced to make an official declaration that it was already working on the creation of such an aircraft, whose existence had already been discussed by representatives of the Soviet General Staff during regular meetings of Warsaw Pact members. At the beginning of 1976, the Polish government suggested that it would set up production of the new aircraft under the designation Su-25L (litsenzionny - licence-built) at the Polskie Zaklady Lotnicze (PZL) plant at Mielec. The engine for the new aircraft was to be a non-afterburning variant of the Tumanskiy R13F-300 turbojet powering some versions of the MiG-21; it would have been built at the PZL Rzeszow plant. This suggestion by the Poles made very sound economic sense, as the engine was in the inventories of all the Warsaw Pact countries at that time. In June 1976 Edward Gierek, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party, officially approached the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party Leonid I Brezhnev with a request for the transfer of a licence to produce the Su-25 at Polish aircraft factories. The Polish aircraft industry was firmly set on establishing full-scale manufacture of the aircraft in the mid-1980's, although this did not come to fruition for a number of reasons - mainly political ones. Events then took a quite different turn.
The text then goes on to explain that the Soviet government didn't intend to pass the new technology onto its 'friends'. In the end, they decided to start production in Tbilisi, Georgia, instead. Then a little later:
Nevertheless, the Su-25 was later shown to the Soviet Union's socialist 'brothers'. In particular, on 29th June 1978 the aircraft was demonstrated to a Polish military delegation led by the Polish Minister of Defence, Marshal (and future President) Wojciech Jaruzelski, at Kubinka airbase West of Moscow. It was flown by one of the Sukhoi OKB's best test pilots, Yevgeniy Solov'yov, who showed off the aircraft's excelent manoeuvrability in a display which was largely conducted at a height of around 50m (165 ft). After the flight, the Polish leader presented the Russian pilot with Poland's highest military aviation award - the Silver Eagle - for his masterful demonstration of the 'shturmovik's' capabilities.
There is also a short section on this issue in the Eksmo book by Markovsky and Prihodshenko "Штурмовик Су-25 "Грач"". Here is a short extract, which more-or-less agrees with the information above (from page 15):
Для ускорения принятия решения МАП о запуске серии Су-25 в Тбилиси директор заводе Я.Р. Хведелиани попросил организовать показ штурмовика высшему партийному и хозяйственному руководству Грузии. 4 июня 1976 года Т8-2 уже был на заводском аэродрома в солнечном Тбилиси. Показ завершился успехом, по воле случая совпав по времени с обращением польсково руководителя Э. Герека к советскому правительству о передаче лицензии на производство самолета в Польшу, для загрузки тамошнего завода PZL в Мелеце. Для поддержки дружественной Польши стали всерьез рассматривать возможность передачи туда выпуска Су-25л ("лицензионный").
It doesn't say much more, except that it was decided to start series production in Tbilisi.
Let me know if you need the above Russian quote translated, but it essentially says the same as what was said in the Aerofax book.
Regards,
Bennie
