Painting targets with lasers by ground troops was one of the main ways to target without radar and was an approach for many stealth missions for decades. Though to what degree over alternatives today, I would not known.
Laser painting is still THE way to target in a contested (No GPS environment). The SU-25 basically has no TV/IR targeting capability in practice (though it's been developed) ALA the A-10, Javelin, etc.
I don't fully understand why - whether it's a technical, expense, or reliability hurdle.
So can the SU-25, it has a laser pointer in the nose (ignore if you mean former Soviet bloc by "our"). My point is that a lot of US aircraft use TV/IR targeting frequently, whereas Russian ones don't have that capability except on the higher-end bombers/fighter-bombers (e.g. SU-34, and it's still rarely used with TV/IR guidance). I don't understand if this is a cost, tech, or reliability issue.
Furthermore, self-designation is useless when an aircraft is doing close air-support and can't tell apart friendlies from enemies, which is an extremely common scenario.
I meant US, I'm far less familiar with soviet bloc aircraft.
Dropping LGBs in close air support isn't a thing. There are other tools for that. Target designation with a laser designator isn't something that anyone is going to do in a danger close CAS situation.
