To me it seems one of the unexpected winners of the mig-23 family was the mig-23bn – outlasting the interceptor variants and the mig-27 family in service!! Given the maintenance and complexity of the latter type mig-27s…I suspect in hindsight the simpler 23BN may have actually struck the right balance: esp for third world air forces!
Looking at the mods done to it over the years, it seems self-defence was the most lacking of the type – with most nations incorporating chaff/flare mods at some point (guess the centreline dispenser requiring the pilot to jettison the central fuel tank didn’t cut it…*surprise surprise* hehe)
Interestingly, Weapons-wise Chile’s done pretty well exporting CB-500s intended for mig-23BNs to all of the last operators of the type – what this entails im not sure: Lack of availability of Russian munitions? Cost? or dissatisfaction with Russian ordinance? Or the ability to manufacture the type under licence in-country?
We know in soviet service the mach 2 capability was seen as unnecessary and was discarded with the mig-27 sans suffix…ive always wondered in the export air forces whether this capability was more utilised (e.g. to ****** off after a raid) seems very likely it found use with the Iraqis using 23bns as bait for the Iranians!
regards
other thing ive wondered:
given the total PITA the gsh-30-6 on the mig-27 was….im suprised they diddnt swap it out for the smaller 23mm rotary cannon of the su-24 or the twin 30mm of the su-25
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