Why the Soviet Union, which already had the formidable Su-17 in production, felt the need to build a ground attack version of the MiG-23 Flogger is a headscratcher, but they did, the MiG-27 D, and later J variant. The MiG-23 is today seen as something of a dog as a fighter (as opposed to being a dogfighter) but as a ground attack aircraft, the MiG-27 was… well, not too bad. It carried a decent payload, and relatively decent avionics, including a laser spot tracker and the ability to carry the AS-7 Kerry and AS-14 Kedge guided missiles. It was even built under license in India,which still operates a few. It’s been withdrawn from Russian service.
Why the Soviet Union, which already had the formidable Su-17 in production, felt the need to build a ground attack version of the MiG-23 Flogger is a headscratcher, but they did, the MiG-27 D, and later J variant. The MiG-23 is today seen as something of a dog as a fighter (as opposed to being…
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