For this week's Mega I will be sharing one of my all time favorite fighter planes: the MiG-23. This was the last single engine fighter of the USSR I believe. I will add some information about it each day.
Day 1: Origins
The MiG-23 had the unenviable task of replacing the MiG-21. The MiG-21 was fast, maneuverable, it the most produced supersonic fighter jet of all time, and had an impressive service record with the Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) against the US air force. However it would need to be replaced eventually. It was a fairly small and short range fighter, and the nose intake limited the size of the radar that could be installed. It soon became clear that a new design would be needed to effectively take advantage of the new technology and manufacturing capabilities that the USSR had developed.
The MiG-23 was designed from the beginning to carry brand new technologies, even some that would not be available when the initial variants of the MiG-23 were produced. It would ultimately carry a larger and more power radar with look-down shoot-down capabilities, along with the first medium range air to air radar guided missile of the USSR: the Vympel R-23. It also featured a swing wing, allowing it to change the wing geometry in flight to suit supersonic speed and acceleration with the wings folded back, or low speed maneuverability and take off and landing performing with the wings all the way forward, or anywhere in between. A high degree of automation for the time allowed the pilot to focus on combat. One of the coolest features in my opinion though was the integration of an IR search and track system (IRST) which would allow the pilot to find and lock onto airplanes without ever turning on the radar, preventing the enemy from detecting that they're being targeted. The MiG-23 could even launch missiles from beyond visual range (barely) without ever turning its radar on, or only briefly to verify that the plane it was locking was an enemy, using the combination of the IRST and the IR guided variant of the R-23: the R-23T.
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