Soviet Armed Forces during the Cold War

Miragedriver said:

I always felt that the Soviets/Russians should have produced the MiG-23 with fixed wings similar to the Orao J-22. The leading edge extension of the J-22 could have given the MiG-23/27 a runway run similar to the swing wing design, but at a fraction of the cost.

The additional wing area could have improved maneuverability and amount of underwing stores.

Just my thoughts as a amateur aircraft designer. Similar to the Chinese going from the J-7 to the JL-9

Back to bottling my Grenache

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the MiG-23 wanted too many things STOL, high speed and agility, if they would had relaxed the requirements perhaps was a good solution but as a 1960s aircraft well that was the technology of that time to fix those contradictions

Few pictures of Tu-128 interceptor









Imagine that thing with an AESA radar


Back to bottling my Grenache

Not Soviet, but Cuban MiG-23 in action (air-to-air missions in Angola). During Soviet eran and Cold War


With the intensification of the conflict in late 1987, Began to dogfights with South African SAAF Mirage F1 on 27 September 1987 the pair of MiG-23ML with senior Cuban leader Alberto Rivas Law, and First Lieutenant Juan Carlos Chavez Godoy, take off to cover the rescue mission with helicopters in the area of Cuito Cuanavale, when they receive announcement ground radar, that two South African fighters penetrate the Angolan airspace north.


Link to full story:


Back to bottling my Grenache

K-181 on the way to Alexandria (Egypt). 1968 Mediterranean

God old Su-15 :

I always liked the Mig-21

The Soviet equivalent of the Sea King, the Mi-14:

Soviet MiG-21s in Afghanistan

Miragedriver said:

Soviet MiG-21s in Afghanistan

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The Mig-21 iwas the most prolific jet fighter ever built.

Even without considering the Chinese J-7, there were 11,500 Mig-21s built. When you add in the 2,400+ J-7s, you end up with almost 14,000 of them.

The most prolific US/Western fighter was the F-86 Sabre, of which almost 9,900 were built.

By comparison, the F-4 Phantom, which came along a little later, was built to 5,400 aircraft.

The F-16 has so far built about 4,600...but they are not done yet and may yet exceed the F-4.

But I do not believe any new. modern fighter of any sort will ever be built in the numbers of the Mig-21.

Jeff Head said:

The Mig-21 iwas the most prolific jet fighter ever built.

Even without considering the Chinese J-7, there were 11,500 Mig-21s built. When you add in the 2,400+ J-7s, you end up with almost 14,000 of them.

The most prolific US/Western fighter was the F-86 Sabre, of which almost 9,900 were built.

By comparison, the F-4 Phantom, which came along a little later, was built to 5,400 aircraft.

The F-16 has so far built about 4,600...but they are not done yet and may yet exceed the F-4.

But I do not believe any new. modern fighter of any sort will ever be built in the numbers of the Mig-21.

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Simple to build, simple to maintain and cheap to operate. All very attractive qualities. I really like the final evolution of the MiG-21 in the FTC-2000G. I would be nice to speculate what that little plane could still do with some Israeli avionics and weapon systems.