[USAF] MiG-23 as Seen by CIA

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DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCENATIONAL AIR & SPACE INTELLIGE NCE CENTER (AF ISR AGENCY )

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB OHIO

Colonel Mark E. He s s .AUG 25 2009Vic e Commander

Nationalir

and Spac e Intelligence Center NASIC)4180 Watson WayWright-Patterson AFB OH 45433 -5648

John Greenewald , Jr .

Dear Mr. Greenewald

This letter is in reference to your Freedom oflnfonnation Act (FOIA) requ es t for a copy o f the

document entitled The Mystery n Sov iet Skie s our c as e number 2009-01109-AF .

After reviewing the document you request ed, it was determined that it is releasable: . We havereproduced a cop y o f the document for you as a result o f your Freedom o f Information Act reque s t ,ho w ev er , the document is copyrighted and later copying oftbe document by you m ay be an infringemento f the owner s copyright. Our reproduction for purposes o f the Freedom of Information Act is a so-called

fair use exception to copyright infringement Your lat er reproduction may not be subject to a fair useexception . We recommend that you receive pennission from the copyright owner prior to any furtherreproductions o f this document .

Your request was processed in the All Other category. The document we are providing con tains

a total o f 4 pag es . All fees hav e be en waiv ed .

Sincerely

wt I--+---MARK E . HESS , Colon el, AF

AttachmentRequested Docum ent

reed o m Thro ua h V la i an ce



A D B NCLASSIFIED I LIMITED

.MIG-23 - The Mystery in Soviet Skies

FOREIGN TECHNOLOGY DIV WRIGHT-PAITERSON AFB OH

11 DEC 1981

Distribution authorized to U.S. Gov't. agencies only;Proprietary Information; 18 JAN 1982. Other requests shall e

referred to Foreign Technology Div., Attn: STINFO.Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433.

UNCLASSIFIED I LIMITED



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FOREIGN TECHNOLOG . DIVISION

HIC-23 - - THE MYSTERY IN SOVIET SK IES

by

Jiri Hornat OTIO' ~ . . . E C T Ef t

C ~~ A N8 19.8aU

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Distribution limited to U.J)CovcrN:lent Agencies Only; 1 JAN 1982

Proprietary (Copyright) Information ;Other requests for this documentmu s t be referred to FTD/STINFO.

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FTO-IDC p" )1 - 1395-81

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EDITED ntANSLATION

(,;) / ij FTD-I0(RS}T-IJ95-81 ,- 11 December 1981

HICROFICHE NR : FTD - 81-C-002028L

) MlC-2) - - nlE HYSTERY IN SOVIET SKIES" ri"l, . Y :_ ' ~ 1 r lHornat

English pages: 11

Source : Leteetvi -Xosmonautika. Nr. 5, 1968, pp . 24- 21

Country o f 0[1&1n: Czechoslov akiaTrans la ted by: LEO KANNER ASSOC!f.!£S

F33657-81-D-0264Requester: FTD/TQTMDis tribution limited to U.S. Government Agencie s Only; 18 JANProprietary (Copyright) InforaatioDi Oth er requests forthis document must be referred to FtD/STINFO.

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1MII TIUMSLATIOM IS .. RENDITION Of THE 0 1i11>1.MAl. f OIU]GH TU T WITHOUT AHl' AMAl YTlC.u. OltEOITOIiIAL COIUl.EHT. SYAT!W.r:lfU OR THEOltiU.DVOCATEOOR IMI" Ll fD,UfTHOstOF THe: SOURCE. '000 HOT t c ( n U l l T REflECT THE O ~ I T I O H

O ~ O'IHIOH O f THE f OIlEIC'" TECHNOLOGY D I.

VISION

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HlG-23 tHE MYSTERY IN SOVIET SUES

Jir lk>rN:t

Accession Por

ItTIS ORW: 0DfIC TAB

R1Unannouncea 0JusU 1oet1o

B.Dlst 'lbUtlon/

Availability CodesAvaH and/or

Dl s t Special

IEThe Facts

The great display staged by Soviet aviation on 19 July 1967 in Domodyedovo

culminated in introduction oi four prototypes of ~ formerly absolutelY unknown

heavy ~ o - e n i n ej e t fight er a i rc raf t . lb e almost standard feature of a l l So

v i e t s upersonic a i r c r a f t up to tha t t ime was dolta wings or a t l e u t consider

ably swept - back vings and, thus, i t ~ a s rather surprising to see wine surfaces

with a relatively small sweepback and a considerable depth of profile along the

entire length on an aircraf t which, as the local commentator claimed. attained

speeds on the order of Kach 3. At f i r s t sight the new fighter a i rcraf t resembled

the heavy American fighter a i r c r a f t A ~ SViailante. Its almost square fuselage

and the u n u s u ~ lshape of the intake port s ~ r e actually r ~ n i s c e n tof the North

American deSign, but i t soon bec ame obvious that both the thickness and s pan

chord ratio as well as that of the vertical empennage areas of t he S o v i ~ ttype

vera much smaller. 1he new aircraft diff . red fro . the Vigilante also by the num-

ber of rudder tai ls projecting froa the upper corners of the rear part of the

fuselage and deflecting outward at a relatively sharp angle.

,Nothln except the configuration of the aircraft i t s e l f gave on indication

as to wllich Soviet design bureau Vas the origin a tor of this most interesting of

a l l D o m o d y e d o ~dcbutants. However, Western aviation journclistsremembercd thewords of Alexander Yokovlev, uttered in Paris at l as t year ' s Salon de l'Aeronou

tique. The Soviet designer then stated that his newes t and also I f s t combat a i r-

craft, mUitary milchine capoblc of attaining the Hach number 3. would oppe:.r a t

Domodycdovo (and that his design bureQu would subsequen t l y 5 p e ~ i a l i z e~ r . C I U 5 i v c ~

ly in tlla design of e1vll transport a t r c t l l ~ t .'thus , the lR),stery surrounding the

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new aitcr. ,( t seemed

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to be solved, as Foxbat , the code nallll ; :lss1gned to this .:Iiter:lCt

by KATO, .H, t h ~ only o,11tcru(t :It the. en t i r c shO'o' about which the c()C';IIcnt:ltor st.,tcd

that i t "':IS capab e of att:lining three times the speed of sound and, finlll ly, seem

ing to warrant meeting of such expectations. Notwithstanding, there appeared to be ,i-sa.c doubts in the circles of specilllists whether an aircraf t of such c o ~ v e n t i o n a l

,

configuration could actual ly perform a ~ claimed.

~ o w e v e rl e t us return to the time preceding the Domodyedovo show by two years

and .a quart t:r . In Apr1l 1965 it w.:ts annou nced in l oscOW' that a two-engine j e t a ir Icraf t , desi&nated as £-266. se t a new speed record in a 1.000 km cl osed c i rcu i t by .

an average speed of 2,320 km/h with an on-board load of 2,000 kg. The a i rc raf t was ip1lot .ed by Alexander Fedotov (who, arteng others, set on 7 Octobu 1961 a s t i l l valid

record by flying the £-166 aircraf t a t an average speed of 2,401 luI/h in a 100 lao IIcircuit) . ~ l l seemed to conflTm the common consensus that the £-266 i s a version iof the two- engine delta-wing a s s a u ~ tfighter introduced in prototype above 1Ushino

in 1961, bearing the \AlO code designation Flipper and known voddwide as the MIG-23. IHowever, this ~ n G- 2 3 Flipper fai led to show up a t the Domodyedovo show at a l l . I

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Additional news regard ing the aircraf t E-266 surfaced in autumn of la s t year. I ,on 5 October i t \las again A l e x ~ n d e rFedotov ~ h o usin g tbis aircraf t , attained an

alt i tude of 30.010 m (vi th a l oad of 2,000 kg). Undisclosed booster means were

used in take-oft .On

1 Hovember Mikhail Komarov, usins the samea l r ~ r a f t .

flewa 500 km closed ~ l r ~ u l ta t an a v e r ~ g espeed of 2,930 km/h. thus topping the record

of the YF-12A of 2,644.220 km/h :lnd, three days l a te r, the £-266 again flew with

a load of 2,000 kg a 1.000 km circui t . The at tained average speed of 2,910 km/h

repre se nted <lnother substantial topping . of the speed ncord of the YF-IU (2,718~ / h set by American pilots on an ident ical c i rcu i t and with identical load or.

1 ~ a y1965 . Together with the nevs of the record perfonaances there also ;jIppeared

photographs of the r ecord - breaking aircraf t . They showed one of t he su r r.rise s from

Domodyedovo • huge angu l a r m4chine wi th tva rudders, s t i l l ascribed to designer

Yakovlev . However. 4 far greater surprise W:lS the off ic ia l text of the c:lptionsa ~ c o m p 4 n y i n tthe photographs. Namely, i t proclaimed th:lt the depicted aircraf t,.bore in the Soviet a i r force thl service design:ltioc. ••• ~ I i k o y a nMIG-23.

Old Friend from Tush ino

So , a lIIG-23 . ~ u t we already know this d e s i s n ~ t i o nth e re adors are sure toI·

object • After a l l . i t belongs to <I hrea , d p ly designed sing le- seater <15S.Qult

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l\'hat thell did beCQI:Ie of t h i s high-pcrfot1l1.1nca ai rcraf t which, al legedly.

toccthcr \ 1th 1upolcv ' s Fiddler (oHid: 1 dcsign:ltion al legedly TU-19) ;lnd

anti-aircraft missiles 10135 [ 0 form the backbone of Soviet ant1air defense?

\ias t actual ly replaced by iClprovcd v2ri<l.nta of i t s older brother folICs

2l P F and SPS?

I t 15 not even possible to unequivocally refute the, a t f i r s t siGllt ra ther

incredible , contention that f l ipper was pushed out" by the. neIJly demons rated

Sukhoy Su- l l On the contrary. such contention i s borne out by several detai l s .

We do know that each Soviet routinely used type i s th e resu l t of a competi t ion

par t ic ipated in by several design bureaus with their projects . I t i s preceded

by an announceaent of tactical and technical conditions which, among others, do

definitely specify the n u m b e ~(and probably a l so the type) of engines. Flipper

and Su-l l are two-engine a i rcraf t . Participation by Flipper and the absence of

coday's Su-l1 in Tushino aiaht have simply been due to the fact that the former

already reached the prototype stage in the summer of 1961 while the l a t t e r did

not. The Su-l l is a lre ady in l ine service; this 1s borne out by the overflight

of a nine-aircraft f o r m ~ t i on of tbese fiahters spanni", th e sky above DOBodyedovo

by a vide band of red smoke from smoke lenerators (s ia i lar s tunts were performed

in Tushino in 1961 by ~ I I G 2 1aircraft) . The thrust of both of i t s engines can

amount to a to ta l of 19,000 kg (in tne case that the eReines invo l ved are actu

al ly the TRD-3l us.d in Su- 9 and Su-1, as is believed by Western sources; to usthe exhaust pipes of the Su- l l appear somewhat narrower), and somewhat less is

s t i l l more thnn enough to at ta in a maximum speed in th e vicinity of l-Iach 2.S .

(AviatiOn Reek even puts i t at Mach 2.8.) E»en thouah the Su- l l has a somewhat

rouah configuration (traces, no doubt, of a certain amount of improvisation in

i t s developBent from the Su-9 from which i t reta ined i t s wing and ta i l surfaces)

i t i s almost r e m ~ r k ~ b l ehow well they comply with the principle of surface • . And

the decisive reason for the Su- l l ' s winning the competition could have been, a t

othorwise equal perfollD<1nce of both aircraf t , i t s direct descent frOI the Su- 9

in d e s i ~ nas wel l os in productionl •

• lihUe Western eomenta to r s are of the opinion that the .counterpart of the Su l lwas the originol conventional version of Hikoyan ' s STOL fighter with delta wings,compnrison of this sing le- cngine, very suitably diaaensioncd type th e fuselage ofwhich is used also by the MIG aircrat t with a variable wing geomet(y, with theSu-ll seems to be r ~ t h e rforced.

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l n l ~ ts t I l l remains to be c l a r i f i ~ d1s how .did this d o l s n ~ t i o n3 5 HIC-23

.1ctU;Jlly COllI\ nbouL. 1110 :In:.vct i s much c':)!";!cr to f ind . I t i s .sufficient to

l ea f through the relevant volumes of Jane 's All the " 'odd 's AIrcraf t . Volume1963/64 shows a view of the Flipper from t ~ r e esidas s t i l l ~ l t h the designa-

t ion tnC-1 . The next, 1964/65. stOltes: "I t Is believed [hnt HI'C-23 i s used

by the Soviet air force as o standard defensive interceptor for short ungl!S."

A s o m e ~ h a tdifferent alleGation i s found in Jane's 1965/66: "Referrals to the

Fl ipper DS HIG-23 appear premature." And. f ina l ly, the sul:sequent volumes f a i l

to l i s t this type at a l l , meaning that 1f t s t i l l exists t probably does not

play any significant role. The fact re=ains that off ic ia l Soviet releases did

not ever refer to i t as • HIG-23. ThU , we are of the opinion that we can con

firm that HIG-23 i s actually E-266 (Foxbat).

HIG- 23 versus YF-l2A

Breaking of the record set by the YF-12A aircraf t in Hay 1965 whith Peter

Datapenko accomplished by a l most 200 km/h assumes even mora si&nificance when

we take into consideration the already oentioned average speed of 2,930 ka/h

achieved by H. Komarov on a 500 k g circui t . The alt i tude record of A. Fedotov

probably does n o ~ bear comparison with the record set by the YF-I2A (24 . 450 . ,

because the American aircraf t flew at that altitude horizontally, vhi le in the

case of the Soviet aircraf t i t was most probably the apex of relatively s t eep

curve begun by "zooming t1 at full thrust of both engines in which the l i f t ingforce of the ~ ~ n g splayed a minimal function.

Nevertheless, a l l records set by the Foxbat represent very high and impres

sive performances by • supposedly conventional interceptor, i f we consider that

they o u t p e r f o r ~such 2 highly specialized and aerodynamic a l ly sophisticated a i r

craft as i s the American YF-12A. The record set in a closed 500 km circuit i s

made interest ing priaari ly by tile b c t that M1G - 23 was capable of maintaining .i t s

aver oge speed of H3Ch 2.76 even in a cross bank of 40· <as 500 km ~ p p r o a c h e sthe

minimally possible turn diometer flown a t such speeds), i . ~•• at a l a t e ra l over

load of 1.3 I . 'lbe American xn-70 Valkyre's minimum turning diometl!r a t l-Iach 3" and 4 20· bank was around 250 km. Fron the fac t that thl! YF- I 2A flew in absolute"

record (direct f l ight th r ough a 15/25 km base) at a speed higher by 2 5~ than i t

flew in closed circuits, i t can be deduced th a t the Ei-266 could at ta in in str.:Jight

horizontal fliGht speeds of up to ~ ~ c h3.4.

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, , , A t ru ly amnio£. ind ins ma4a in se t t ing the record On It 1,000 kll dr ,cu i t ,,·.:as

the filct tha t the new HtC-23 can maintdn the "peed of Hach 2.74 for more tlHln 20

minutes. b c c a u s ~3 5 i s well known, a l . c s t 20% of fuel of the take-ofr weight 1s

consumed during climbing and gathering speed. Thus,i t

appears prob.:ablc that thef l igh t s s t o r t ed with Oldd1t10na1 pods of fue l tanks, which seeJI$ to coincide with

reports that auxiliary means were used in [ake-off .

The E-266 was announced a t the a i r shaY as an a l l -weather in terceptor. west

ern sources describe i t as a combination interceptor/assault/reconnaissance a i r

craf t . I t s closest design equivalent would most probably have been the twin - en

aine Hawker P.1129 the dovelopment of vhich was scrapped for the benefit of thel t ~ ralso scrapped TSR.2.

11,. f-266 """"".dlu th<4 l I i.tUh type by .u. tilke-066 W .i9ht,.tid i4 u,ti-IICI.Wl i t t 45,000 kg {the ' - .take-o W .i9ht06 tile YF-I i4 o.U'- Jed to be

61,500 kgl. ThiJ> o.U' Jedly """"uponM to the u..ti(.i,Clt.i.on 01 two .imp.toved P,166tng.inM IfutouJn 6Jtom.tlte E- 1661 e.a.dt 0& wlLi.th .u to 'Idve d nol\mal .thIw.Jt 06 1 I01I.e.

.than 10,000 kp altd anothM 2 x 5,000 Ill' Me. p;wv.i.ded IUi.,tilout a doubt by 4It e.6

6<cient 'IttAbwuting ' }4tVII. TIW. ,",ughly eo.ineidu i l io "'Lth the . . tiaa.tedIII1ro.m di.ameWI. 06 the <ng.(II" { p . I O ~I . B ml llJuJ tilw. uhawt p lpu

(not Quite. 1.4 mJ wlLidt ahno.6t e.x.ac.tty eo.inci..dt. tuUlt the. d.imvu.iOn4 06 tlte. )-51

ellg.;.,u ,uW, . tilltU4.t 01 14,100 -15,4 0 op .w g t ~ g 01 19,050 kp eadut iUu .d ..in the. Locb.lta.e.d VF- IfA . COl'lpUt.a.ti.on 0& .the. pJtt.c ( .w da.ta. .u ba.6e.d on, an ovt J aU ie/19th 06 24.4 111, wheM.by tile wing6part mu.6t be appttOxi.J:r:Ltd.y 75.3 II

and the. wing 6W1.6aeu 19 mao ILe.llgtll and IcJing6pa1t 06 tite. YF-J2A Me. 29.S and-16. 9 m . . . pec.ti.vely. 1

16 CUI? uelude. a p p t i . ~ n06 V4.tiable. 6tOetpbadt, tJi( )l the. wing 6i1ape CLud

60J1.:the Foxbat .i.6. one. 06 tlte u t de.&.ign6 bOlt a. muttipWtpo4e a.cAcJta&-i l eWt good

tJ1.ke-o" aAd landing pIlOpeJt.iiu. The p J t O ~.tItiWe.64 06 mG-23'.6 tcJing 4Wt6a.c.u

nwt be on tile OMVl 06 41 lolt even tU61 and call .ake good U4e 06 6lap 6 l ~ ' aud

leading edge tilting.

TIle. Jltlape 06 tile. 6U6ehtge .i.ndi.ta..te6 adheJI:l Jlc.e bJ tile. p.tineiple 06 JlWl.6acu~ N6lU6hlngN a.t .tIle .in.tab:e. polLt level) . Suctioft 06 (tV .

601t tile. potueA

un.i.t4 Oc.cu.t.6 t/llloUfj/, .(U'O Ilia" po.tto c..iWlco n:tItDdc.o.~ n p u . tP M a m e t ~--TIle lOtL'VI.

e.nri4 06 t.IIUI poILU Me. J(e.in60l1.c.ed by b.tac.eJ pJiotltuding AItOIII.ti,e 6cL6elage the Jr.e-

/IIa..OK.lIgpt:t1Lt 06 wll.iclt L1 ac. :tlla.tly &0June.d by (1. box 0 ' (1. Ite.wIIgulM ~ t l alld

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·1 }llIoto Credits: AvintsiYQ i kosmon .wtikD: . Aviation T,,'cck & Space Techn o logy,

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Marina.

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Approximate sketch of three views ofthe E-266 a ircraft made on basis ofpbotoaraph s

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Tho probably mos t faithful depiction by an extant sketchshowing three views of the prototype fighter aircraftbearing the dedgnation tIlG-23 Flipper

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f, placed t h b high - performance interceptor •••

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ti•• ,or the twin-clnslno Sukhoy Su- l l ?

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[USAF] MiG-23 as Seen by CIA

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