What is remembered about the only type of Mikoyan and Gurevich strike aircraft
In the West, fighter-bombers were widely and successfully used in the Second World War. Our homeland went its own way, for a long time "giving" ground targets to be torn apart by attack aircraft and bombers. Starting with the firstborn in the historical product line of MiG brand aircraft, they were created as front-line fighters and interceptors. Of course, both the MiG-3 and MiG-15/17 could carry bombs and unguided missiles and used them when the war situation demanded it, and sometimes very successfully. However, they were not specialized for carrying out tasks to destroy ground targets, which separated them from Western fighter-bombers.
It was the creation of specialized strike aircraft on a single platform with the MiG-23 front-line fighter that became new for the Design Bureau thanks to the MiG–23B - MiG-27 family. Due to the advanced onboard equipment and powerful weapons, especially guided, the MiG-27K has long been considered the best single-seat fighter-bomber in the world of round-the-clock use.
THE PROTOTYPE
The Design Bureau developed the 32-24 light strike aircraft project in 1969 for actions against ground targets with bombs and unguided projectiles, with the possibility of attacking air targets with thermal missiles and cannon fire. Visually, the shock variant stood out with a "beveled" nose for a better view from the cockpit to the ground directly ahead. The line of sight down was 17 degrees – more than on other Soviet combat aircraft. It could carry up to 3 tons of combat load, for example, six 500 kg bombs. Unlike a number of foreign and domestic attack aircraft of that time, the MiG-23B quickly reached supersonic during acceleration, which increased the chances of survival in case of evading enemy fighters and performing anti-aircraft maneuvers.
The project provided for the installation of the AL-21F engine with a thrust of 8000 kgf at maximum and 11,500 kgf at afterburner. In this form, the aircraft was lifted into the sky by P.M. Ostapenko on August 20, 1970. It was adopted and released in the amount of 24 copies (1972), consoles of early editions were installed.
MiG-23BN (aircraft 32-23) with R-29B-300 (thrust 8000 and 11500 kgf, respectively) appeared in 1973. Despite some increase in fuel consumption, the return from the power units of the Arkhip Cradle design to the engines of S.K. Tumansky provided a greater degree of unification with front-line fighters and interceptors, which ensured high serial production. The assembly of the MiG-23BN was carried out at the Moscow site, in parallel with the manufacture of MiG-23M /MF fighters with a unification of the airframe design of about 80%.
Basically, relatively simple "bae-ens" were exported. For the local customer, variants with the indices "BK" and "BM" were created, differing in the composition of the equipment, with digital computers instead of analog ones and an expanded arsenal of weapons of destruction.
BOMBING
The MiG-27 went down in aviation history as the first Soviet strike aircraft capable of bombing from a spatial maneuver. And everything turned out as follows. Unlike the importing countries of aircraft, the Soviet Union acquired for its own armed forces only a small number of strike MiGs with the numerical index "23". Our bet was on an improved version – the future MiG-27, which was created through the MiG-23BK and MiG-23BM.
Unlike the comparatively simple MiG-23BN equipped with the Sokol-23N with an analog computer, the PrNK-23 sighting and navigation complexes (with indexes) with digital ones were installed on serial machines for the domestic Air Force. For example, the Sokol-23S variant (PrNK-23S) provided accurate projectile firing and accurate bombing. The MiG-27 sample submitted for testing carried a navigation system with the Orbita-10 BCVM. It had sighting and navigation modes of operation, which made it possible to automatically guide the aircraft along the route with a return to the base or three alternate airfields. On it, the number of weapon suspension points was increased to seven.
On the basis of the KIT system, with the transition to a new element base and working body, the specialists of the Research Institute-17, the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant, the Leningrad Design Bureau "Electroautomatics" created a laser rangefinder "Background". Its use on the MiG-27 was reflected in improving the accuracy of shooting and bombing from a dive.
Such an aircraft was tested in Akhtubinsk by S.A. Mikoyan: "After taking off at an altitude of 50 m, I turned on the autopilot… The plane passed through three turning points, entered the landfill, dropped from 12,000 to 5,000 m, automatically dropped bombs at a point with pre-set coordinates, and then went to the airfield area." Next – the descent along the glide path. "At an altitude of about 40 m, I turned off the autopilot and landed the plane manually," the test pilot recalled. The plane was remembered by him by the automatic bombing mode with cabriolet. "Flying at an altitude of 200 m, when approaching the target, I combined the crosshair of the sight with a pre–planned landmark – a "rendered point" - and pressed the combat button. The plane passed along the horizon for some time, then it went into a slide itself, and after climbing the altitude calculated by the computer, the bombs automatically separated. It was necessary to get out of the slide manually. I turned to the left and saw the explosions of my two bombs within the circle of the polygon with a radius of 50 m."
UNREGULATED AIR INTAKE
Fighter-bombers operate at low and medium altitudes and rarely leave the transonic region. Therefore, aircraft designers considered it permissible to switch to an unregulated air intake – it is lighter and simpler structurally. Fixed slots for draining the boundary layer, located 80 mm from the side surface of the fuselage, were reduced in area. The maximum number of flight Mach decreased to M = 1.7 at an altitude of 8 km and M = 1.1 at the ground. The instrument evolutionary speed of the MiG-27 aircraft with a wing in the position of 16 degrees is 400 km/ h, with a wing in the position of 72 degrees, the maximum instrument speed is 1350 km/h.
Survival in the conditions of modern warfare was improved by a system of passive and active radar interference. To increase the resistance to the effects of damaging agents, an overhead booking was used (as on the MiG-23B) and the fuel tanks were pressurized with neutral gas. The internal fuel reserve increased to 5400 liters due to an additional tank No. 1A under the floor of the cab compartment. For a longer range, three fuel tanks of 790 liters were hung on two nodes under the wing and one under the fuselage . At seven suspension points, the aircraft carried up to 4 tons of combat load. Its nomenclature included the UPK-23–250 cannon containers, as well as the MiG-23BN, as well as the SPPU-22 with a movable block of barrels. A significant step forward in increasing the firepower of the aircraft was the replacement of the built-in GSH-23L cannon with the GSH–6-30 with a rotating block of seven barrels based on the AO-18 naval submachine gun. It did not fit into the contours of the fuselage, and it was installed directly in the stream closer to the center of the lower part of the fuselage.
By 1974, the appearance of the strike aircraft satisfied the requirements of the Soviet Air Force, and it was adopted. The release was entrusted to the Irkutsk aircraft factory. Serial aircraft were waiting in parts, but their acceptance and operation were hampered by unreliably working PRNCS. At the initiative of the director of the aircraft factory in Irkutsk, Maksimovsky, they created a headquarters and developed a strategy of actions to get out of the current situation. By the decision of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, almost 200 highly qualified specialists from Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Smolensk and Novosibirsk were sent to Irkutsk for three months. It was necessary to violate the operating mode of the enterprise, extending shifts. A special bonus system was introduced, televisions, refrigerators and motorcycles were distributed to distinguished employees. So the Irkutsk plant worked from September to December 1975. The plan of 160 aircraft was fulfilled. Veterans of the enterprise at that time are remembered by three letters – BAM, representing the abbreviation of the phrase "Maximovsky's Big Emergency".
HIGH-PRECISION KAIRA
Due to the advanced on-board equipment and powerful means of destruction, especially guided, the MiG-27K was considered the best fighter-bomber in the world of round-the-clock use. The first flight was on December 30, 1974 (as the MiG-23BK, aircraft 32-26), adopted in 1975. The car was produced in Irkutsk since 1976, about 200 were built in total. Thanks to the MiG-27K, IAZ gained fame as a manufacturer of the most advanced attack aircraft of the front-line aviation of the Soviet Union.
The PrNK-23K complex with the Orbita-20–23K BCVM had additional modes, including the following. PMS – aiming by maneuver of the aircraft. PKS – programmatically corrected tracking of the target. AKS – automatically corrected tracking. Their development was carried out with the participation of GosNIIAS; a lot of work was done by Leningrad "Electroautomatics". The accuracy of bombing (CVO) improved from 300 m to several meters, that is, in fact, the system provided a direct hit to the target.
From the best side, the MiG-27K was also distinguished from other modifications by the laser television-optical system "Kaira". Equipped with laser and television channels, it gave the aircraft the ability to use both laser and television-optical bombs and missiles. An increase in the target detection range via a television channel in conditions of haze, fog was provided by a contrast enhancement system. There was a wide range of angles, up to 140 degrees. The optical head of the laser sight-rangefinder could rotate in azimuth and angle of position (40, 130 degrees), providing target tracking during aircraft maneuvers. According to the onboard computer, the beam was held on the target. Visual accompaniment was carried out with the help of a stabilized television camera, the pilot had a television line–of-sight indicator in the cockpit.
Thanks to the advanced sighting and navigation system, the MiG-27K could use powerful and very advanced means of destruction, even by modern standards, such as the corrected aircraft bombs KAB500L and, with a cluster warhead, KAB500KL. They are guided by a laser beam reflected from the target. In addition to the X-25L missile, which was part of the armament of less complex variants, the MiG-27K also used the X-29L, designed to destroy particularly strong targets. To increase the angle of approach to the target, she could do a "slide", which increased the effectiveness of the warhead. Other variants of guided bombs and missiles were equipped with a television correlation homing head capable of capturing a target of the "aircraft in the parking lot" type at a distance of 15-17 km. The KAB-500KR was distinguished by an armor–piercing warhead, the KAB500D was volumetrically detonating.
The chances of a fighter-bomber to survive when encountering enemy fighters were increased by the R-60 (R-60M) air–to-air missiles that replaced the R-3S. Compared with the MiG-23BN, the efficiency of the MiG-27K is 2-2.5 times higher, while the level of losses is 1.5–3 times lower. The MiG-27s built earlier reached the "K" level by installing the "Kaira" system in the nose of the fuselage and the IT-23M television indicator in the cockpit. 500 vehicles have been upgraded (almost all in the troops).
Thanks to the products with the MiG brand, the aircraft factory in Irkutsk entered the "elite club" of enterprises of the domestic military-industrial complex. His membership was confirmed in April 1978 by the fact of a visit to the enterprise by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev spent almost the whole day on April 2 at the factory, inspecting the workshops and talking with the workers.
CHEAPER OPTION
With all the effectiveness of the corrected ammunition, the main means of conducting air warfare were and still are unguided bombs and shells. They are simple and cheap, and the accuracy of hitting the target in a real combat situation is largely determined by the skill of the pilot and the capabilities of his aircraft's avionics. The arsenal of shock MiGs includes powerful S-24 and S-24B 240 mm caliber, S-25 340 or 420 mm caliber, as well as blocks with 55 and 80 mm missiles (B-8 with 20 charges). When flying out to defeat ground targets, the options are "simply and angrily" – eight 500 kg caliber bombs, up to nine 250 kg caliber or 18 "acres".
The role of a relatively simple and cheap fighter-bomber of the Soviet Air Force was performed by the MiG-27M (aircraft 32-29), created in 1976. The KN-23 navigation system with a Doppler radar was able to fix the coordinates of three route turning points and four airfields where you can go to land after completing a combat mission. The sighting and navigation complex allowed to carry out navigation bombing at night or behind clouds. For the use of high-precision ammunition, the machine was equipped with a laser system "Background" or "Maple". The MiG-27M was produced at the Ulan-Ude plant during 1978-1983. We collected one and a half hundred copies using airframe parts made in cooperation in Irkutsk.
Previously produced MiG-27s in the amount of about 300 were modified into a variant of the MiG-27D (aircraft 32-27) with a more advanced than the "Background" laser system "Maple". It was distinguished by the ability to control the beam in two planes instead of one, with a large range of angles.
The program of aircraft with a variable geometry wing has left a deep mark in the history of the Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau. Among other things, this is also expressed by the fact that MiGs have mastered a new "profession" for themselves for the first time. Of the 6,000 assembled MiG-23 family aircraft, more than 1,300 were produced in fighter-bomber variants.
Vyacheslav Ivanov
Vyacheslav Ivanov - military expert, historian
