MiG-29

MiG-23 (Russian: МиГ-23; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a Soviet multirole variable-wing fighter aircraft designed for combat against enemy aircraft across a wide range of altitudes and speeds, as well as for performing tasks in support of operational-strategic associations. Certain modifications of the MiG-23 are capable of striking ground targets.

The history of the creation of the MiG-23 began in the first half of the 1960s, when the Mikoyan Design Bureau (OKB-155) began developing a fighter to replace the MiG-21. The first flight was made on July 9, 1967, and it was accepted into service in May 1969.

The MiG-23 was one of the first mass-produced aircraft with variable geometry wings. The airframe is made of steel and aluminum alloys with extensive use of welding. The wing consoles have a trapezoidal planform and can be set at sweep angles of 16, 45, and 72 degrees. Each console has leading-edge flaps, four-section trailing-edge flaps, and two-section interceptors. It is equipped with a turbojet twin-circuit engine with afterburning chambers, the R27F2-300/P29-300/P35-300 (depending on the modification). The engine weighs 1488 kg and has a thrust of 12500 kgf.

The serial production of MiG-23 fighters was stopped in 1985, and the latest modifications of MiG-23 fighters in the Ukrainian and Russian Air Forces were withdrawn to storage bases.

In addition to the Soviet Air Force and Air Defense Forces, MiG-23 aircraft of various modifications were supplied to the Air Forces of Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Egypt, Libya, Hungary, Iraq, India, North Korea, Ethiopia, South Yemen, Poland, Syria, and Vietnam.

The combat career of the MiG-23 was not as intense as its predecessor, the MiG-21, but no less interesting. The “Twenty-third” fought in the Arab-Israeli wars in the Middle East, in Iraq during the "Desert Storm," and in Angola. Practically all modifications underwent “baptism by fire.”