Dominate South Asia

Since the production of the first MiG-1 aircraft, the Mikoyan Design Bureau has been an important aircraft design bureau in the Soviet Union. It has also designed a number of world-famous fighter aircraft, such as the MiG-15 air corridor, such as the Vietnam battlefield Take the compact MiG-21, such as the MiG-25 that makes the West tremble and can fly three times the speed of sound.

Although another design bureau, the Sukhoi Design Bureau, is competing with Mikoyan, but because Sukhoi designs mainly interceptors, which are equipped for the Soviet Union's territorial air defense forces and are not exported to the outside world, the Mikoyan Design Bureau is a household name. , and now, the MiG-29 is the masterpiece of the new generation of the Mikoyan Design Bureau.

As the main model of the third-generation F-15 and F-16 to compete with the United States, the Soviet Air Force valued this fighter very much. After the fighter was finalized, they couldn't wait to bring this fighter to the battlefield in Afghanistan. They wanted to Test the combat effectiveness of this fighter through actual combat and let Westerners know that the best fighter is in the Soviet Union!

However, after several battles, the results were disastrous.

The Mikoyan Design Bureau therefore became the military's punching bag. Today, the design bureau welcomed several big bosses, including the new Air Force Commander Marshal Kutakhov, and Deputy General Secretary Morokov.

With dark faces, these people walked around the Mikoyan Design Bureau before entering Belyakov's office.

Rostilav Apolloshevich Belyakov, the chief designer of the MiG-29, had a premonition of something when he saw these people coming here.

The pressure on the phone alone was no longer enough to vent the military's anger. Kutakhov came to find fault in person.

"Our MiG-29 was completely defeated on the battlefield in Afghanistan." Kutakhov said: "The most advanced fighter jet claimed by the Mikoyan Design Bureau is this level? The radar and avionics of the MiG-29 are completely backward. Western fighter planes, under their interference, our The fighter planes are all deaf and blind! The combat radius of the MiG-29 is only more than 200 kilometers! Our air force only has about ten minutes of combat time after taking off from the frontline airport! The fighter planes simply cannot meet our needs!”

Looking at the angry air force commander, Belyakov simply refused to pee on him. Belyakov. He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Academy during World War II and then entered the Mikoyan Design Bureau. After Mikoyan retired from the front line, he presided over the design of the MiG-23 fighter in the 1960s. He himself was proud of the Air Force in front of him. What is a commander? His resume is not as rich as Belyakov’s! It was just good luck that he gained the trust of General Secretary Andropov. Does this guy know what an advanced fighter is? Knowing wing-body fusion, do you know what vortex is?

The development of the MiG-29 embodies the efforts of everyone in the Mikoyan Design Bureau. Especially for the fire control system, when a Western aircraft flies within the envelope of the MiG-29, there is no possibility of unlocking it. It’s all those frontline flying units that are so bad!

"If it only carries two medium-range and short-range air-to-air missiles each, the MiG-29's combat radius can be almost doubled. Therefore, our fighter planes are not inferior to Western fighters in performance. Our radar is interfered with, We can take the same approach and use jammers to interfere with Pakistan Air Force fighters. However, we have nothing but Apart from using the A-50 early warning aircraft, there is no electronic jammer coordination at all. These are all mistakes of command. If we use the jammer at the same time to prevent the opponent's Phoenix missile from being launched and enter the visual range, we have absolute control. Advantages." Belyakov said, his tone neither condescending nor arrogant, there is no problem with our aircraft. It’s just that you don’t know how to drive it!

After hearing Belyakov say this, Kutakhov finally became angry.

Kutakhov did not climb up through connections. He had participated in the Great Patriotic War and survived countless political struggles. The various shortcomings in the system were apparent at a glance. It can be said that he has long been deeply denounced by the military industrial design bureau's various evils. This time, it was just because of his defeat in the battle that his uncontrollable anger exploded!

The Soviet Air Force's fighter jets lagged behind the United States in terms of performance and were also more than ten years behind in time. Of course, these were due to the Soviet Union's inherent mistakes in decision-making on military technology research and development, and the various overt and covert struggles between the major design bureaus were also "successful." It’s a must.”

Mikoyan Design Bureau, Sukhoi Design Bureau, Ilyushin Design Bureau, and Yak Design Bureau, these are all first-class fighter design bureaus. If these design bureaus can compete thoroughly like the United States, they will come up with the best. Plans come and let the Air Force choose from them. That is also a good competition. However, this is not the case at all.

Almost all the leaders of these fighter design bureaus came to work after World War II. They had no more personal experience of war. During the Cold War, they had no ambitions. They only needed to produce qualified products in accordance with the needs put forward by the General Staff. The product is fine.

Even if the product is not up to standard and has some defects hidden, they can equip it into the army as long as they move up and down to clear it. However, due to institutional reasons, Western bidding is almost impossible to fully implement.

The MiG-29 has many problems. Before these problems were completely solved, the Mikoyan Design Bureau had already equipped the troops with this fighter in order to get ahead of the Sukhoi Design Bureau!

"In a fierce air battle, our pilots had to pull eight or nine switches up and down to launch missiles! This caused our pilots to lose many opportunities and watch the enemy planes slip away! The operating system of the fighter planes is too Heavy, our pilot kept up with the enemy aircraft and made several maneuvers with heavy overload. , I no longer have the energy to pull the control lever! Not to mention the quality of our pilots, they are the most elite pilots in the European theater and the best pilots in the regiment!" Kutakhov said angrily: "Fighters! The flaws are the flaws of the fighter plane! The MiG-29 fighter is a complete garbage fighter!”

After hearing this, Belyakov blushed and wanted to argue with Kutakhov, especially about the MiG-29 equipment unit, which was agreed by Deputy General Secretary Morokov. He was not Slap Deputy General Secretary Molokov in the face?

"We lost more than forty MiG-29s! More than forty pilots lost their lives in this way, entirely because they believed in the fighter aircraft in their hands and believed that the MiG-29 was a top fighter aircraft in the world! And now, this The fighters let them die needlessly, while the enemy returned victorious. This is completely a crime! If the MiG-29 does not undergo large-scale improvements, our Air Force will have no choice but to do so. Fully support the T-10 of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, let your Mikoyan Design Bureau eat shit! Moreover, I want to suggest to the Politburo that this kind of criminal behavior should be thrown into prison. Work under whips and hunger like the ancestors of the Patriotic War!" roared Kutakhov, his voice almost breaking through the roof of the Mikoyan Design Bureau for everyone to hear.

After saying this, Kutakhov walked out of the design bureau's office, feeling much more relaxed.

"Our army needs advanced fighters to completely suppress Western fighters. The Mikoyan Design Bureau bears a large responsibility for the failure of the air battle in Afghanistan. Therefore, we must come up with an improvement plan as soon as possible." Deputy General Secretary Molokov told others Ryakov said: "Our Air Force is under great pressure. The situation on the battlefield in Afghanistan is very unfavorable to us. The whole world is watching our jokes and the MiGs' jokes."

Belyakov's body shook violently. He knew that this represented instructions from the highest level in Moscow. The failure of the air battle in Afghanistan was entirely caused by the performance defects of the MiG-29.

"Yes, we will definitely come up with an improvement plan as soon as possible." Belyakov said.

I heard that the Sukhoi Design Bureau had replaced hydraulic control with fly-by-wire control due to the flight accident. It seems that we also have to modify the control system. The test pilots reported that the feedback torque was indeed too large and the operation was laborious.

As for the short flight range, the only option is to add fuel tanks. The space on the aircraft has been used up. Where can we find extra space for fuel tanks? I can only find a place on the back of the machine.

The fire control system pulls multiple buttons, mainly because the three-in-one fire control, radar, photoelectric and helmet sight interact with each other. This is a revolutionary progress. Unfortunately, due to the backwardness of automation, they have to let manual control To operate, there are quite a lot of buttons.

All must be improved!

Under the scolding of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, the Mikoyan Design Bureau began the road to improvement. As their opponent, the Sukhoi Design Bureau, life is also difficult now.

The project of advanced fighter aircraft began in the 1970s. After the death of Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi, Mikhail Simonov served as the chief designer.

After experiencing a crash, the fuselage was modified, and the performance was found to be unsatisfactory, and everything was completely overturned. The current T-10 has completed basic aerodynamic improvements, and its flight performance is perfect. It has adopted the official Su-27 serial number.

But now, chief designer Simonov is worried.

These are all radars manufactured by the Instrument Manufacturing Institute in the damn town of Zukovsky!

At the beginning of its development, the Su-27 was aimed at the F-15. In addition to aiming at maneuverability, it also had advanced electronic equipment. For example, the Su-27's new multi-mode radar must have strong anti-jamming capabilities and the ability to track targets in all-round upward/downward vision; it surpasses all aspects in detection range, aiming accuracy, anti-jamming capabilities, and multi-target tracking capabilities. The APG63 radar has much higher requirements than the MiG-29.

Such requirements can only be solved using new technologies, and planar gap radar has excellent performance. Therefore, the Soviet Union must also adopt this structure on new fighter jets! (To be continued ~^~)