October 17, 2006 at 6:34 am
Saw a program on The Military Channel today about Soviet swept-wing fighter/attack aircraft, and while I figure it was an older program from the 90’s, it did cause some questions to pop into my head.
I’ve never been quite clear on a few things regarding the MiG-23 and -27.
First of all, how many different sizes of drop tanks do/did they carry? 210 US-gallons seems to be the size I know of (800 litre maybe?), and I assume they were carried on the centerline and on two wing hardpoints which are fitted under the moveable portion of the wing?
Could the tanks be carried underneath the gloves as well for a total of five in a ferry configuration?
On another note I’m curious about the hardpoints on the MiG-23B and MiG-27 series. They had nine as opposed to seven on the MiG-23M variants right?
On the two rear-mounted fuselage hardpoints, could anything other than bombs be carried there, and could smaller bombs be carried on triple or multiple ejector racks?
Also, what about AAM’s? You generally hear that a maximum of six AAM’s could be carried by the MiG-23, but could the R-60 be carried in pairs on the glove pylons as well?
What about the MiG-27? Is two AAM’s under the engine intakes the maximum it could carry?
Oh, and the centerline hardpoint on both variants……was it always just limited to carrying a fuel tank? Any other stores carried?
I know these all seem very random, but with all of the Russian airplane buffs on here I figure this is a good place to start.