No, really, it's not a MiG-21
Looks like a MiG-21, doesn't it? Except it's not a MiG-21 or even a MiG. It's a Sukhoi SU-9.
Like most people I used to think that all Russian fighters were MiGs. In reality, much of their interceptor force came from the Sukhoi design bureau. There were no aircraft "companies" in the Soviet Union, but the design bureaus served a similar function.
Never heard of an SU-9? No problem, that's why we're here. You're probably a Cold War geek like myself or you wouldn't be reading this.
The big difference between an SU-9 and a MiG-21 is that the Sukhoi is much larger, about one and a half times the size of the MiG. Most MiGs were nimble little sports cars, Sukhois were big fast muscle-cars.
The reason they look about the same is they were designed around the same time from the same set of numbers. During the Korean War, the Soviet aerodynamic research institute TsAGI did a series of aerodynamic studies for the development of future fighter aircraft.
They came up with what you see here. A sharply swept delta wing, but with a conventional tail. This aircraft shared development with the SU-7 ground attack aircraft and the fuselage looks almost identical.
SU-9 top and SU-7 bottom. Almost identical except for the wing.
First flight was in 1956 and performance was pretty impressive for the day. Top speed around Mach 1.8 and a service ceiling of 55,000 feet. They even managed to zoom-climb a modified one up to 94,000 feet, briefly holding several speed and altitude records.
Range was limited as was typical in many Soviet aircraft. They could build a powerful jet engine but fuel efficiency was never their strong point.
Handling was supposedly unforgiving. Takeoff and landing speeds were insanely high, somewhere around 200 knots!
SU-9s ready to defend the motherland. This shows the relatively large size of the Sukhoi.
They built roughly 1,100 of these and all were assigned to PVO Strany, the Soviet air defense force. Note that PVO was a completely separate branch of the military and had nothing to do with the Soviet Air Force (VVS). None were ever exported outside the Soviet Union.
Its closest US counterpart would probably be an F-101 or F-102. Both were early interceptors with good performance but hampered by poor armament.
Its strengths would have been speed and rate of climb. It was designed to get up and go after high flying bombers.
Its weakness would have been its armament or almost total lack thereof.
The intake shock cone housed a very primitive R1L radar. It carried no guns. Sole armament was four K-5 (NATO AA-1 Alkalai) missiles. These were, to put it mildly, junk. They were primitive "beam riders" meaning they could only be used from a pure tail-chase attack.
The SU-9 pilot would have depended heavily on GCI (Ground Controlled Intercept) guidance to line him up almost directly behind the attacking bomber. The K-5 missile had a maximum range of less than 4 miles and a minimum range of just over a mile. That's a pretty small window to line up a shot. He would then have to lock on and "ripple fire" at least two or probably all four missiles to have any chance of a hit.
After those missed (and they probably would) he would be reduced to a ramming attack, except he's probably out of gas at this point. I have little doubt that a dedicated PVO pilot would have rammed an attacking bomber if ordered to. One of these actually attempted to ram Francis Gary Powers but missed.
SU-9 firing a K-5 missile. Good luck with that.
K-5 Air to Air Missile
These were all retired sometime in the 1970s. Some shared the fate of their US counterparts and were converted to target drones.
SU-9 sitting forlornly in front of what looks to be an apartment building. And he's taking up at least two parking spots! What a jerk! Seriously, how did this thing get here?
Next up was the SU-11. This was an improved version of the SU-9 except with a more powerful engine, a better radar (NATO "Skip Spin") and a missile that at least had a
chance of working, the K-8 (AA-3 Anab).
The SU-11 looks almost identical to its predecessor. The only distinguishing features are the external fuel lines to feed the thirstier engine and the larger shock cone housing the improved radar.
Some sources claim it carried four missiles but I've never seen a picture with more than two mounted, so I'm going to say two was more likely.
The interesting thing about the R-8, and most other Soviet air to air missiles, is that it came in both a heat seeking and Semi-Active radar guided versions. Normal load for an SU-11 would have been one of each. Soviet tactical doctrine was to fire both, with the heat seeker actually being launched first. Otherwise the heat seeker might actually lock on to the other missile.
Theoretically the SU-11 could carry a gun pod(s) in place of the external fuel tanks. I don't know if they actually did.
Well preserved SU-11. Note the external fuel lines and the large R-8 missiles.
SU-11 with two external fuel tanks.
Note that each missile has a different seeker head. One is IR and the other is radar guided.
The SU-11 was an interim aircraft and only 100 or so were built. Some SU-9s may actually have been upgraded to SU-11s. The last ones were retired in 1983. None were ever exported and none ever saw action at least that we know about.
That brings us to the quintessential Soviet interceptor - the SU-15 "Flagon".
SU-15
Now is as good a time as any to explain the silly code names NATO gave Soviet weapons. "F" means Fighter, "B" means Bomber, "C" means Cargo. One syllable means it's propeller driven and two means it's a jet. So a "Flagon" is a jet fighter and a "Bear" is a propeller driven bomber. Air to air missiles start with "A", so we have "Atoll", "Alkalai", "Anab", "Adder" and so on.
SU-15 with a pair of R-8 (AA-3) missiles.
The SU-15 was developed in the early 1960s and entered service in 1965. Over 1200 were built, and all served with PVO. Like its predecessors, it was never exported.
It shares a lot of DNA with the SU-9/11 but is a much different configuration. They ditched the shock-cone intake and went with two turbojets fed by side mounted intakes. The initial versions kept the pure delta wing but later versions gained a "kinked" or "cranked" delta wing with blown flaps for better takeoff and landing performance.
Late model SU-15 at top. Earlier version is at the bottom.
This was a pretty advanced aircraft by Soviet standards. Roughly equivalent to the American F-106. Top speed of Mach 2.5 in a clean configuration, Mach 2.1 with missiles attached. Climb rate of 45,000 feet/minute, impressive even by today's standards.
The new nose allowed for a much improved radar to be installed. Operationally however it was still very dependent on GCI. The aircraft could actually be controlled from the ground via data-link up to the last part of the intercept.
SU-15 Cockpit. The radar screen is at the top of the instrument panel.
Another cockpit shot showing ejection handle.
Armament was improved over its predecessors. It still carried the pair of R-8 missiles but it could also carry 2 (sometimes 4) R-60 heat seekers (NATO AA-8 Aphid). The R-60 didn't have much range but it did have limited all-aspect capability and was a highly maneuverable little missile.
Later model SU-15 with kinked wing.
It could, and sometimes did, carry a pair of 23mm gun pods in place of the drop tanks. By then the Soviets had figured out, like we did, that a fighter without a gun is at a disadvantage.
The plane was quite well suited for its role as an interceptor. Fast, high rate of climb, decent radar and avionics plus a reasonable weapons load.
It had its share of weaknesses as well. Those two gas-guzzling Tumansky turbojets limited its range. Takeoff and landing speeds were still quite high, 215 knots for the early models and around 200 even with the improved wing!
Handling was reported to be responsive but very unforgiving, not atypical for high performance aircraft of that era. Visibility over that long nose looks iffy for takeoffs and landings. I'm guessing here, but you could probably kill yourself in one these about as easily as you could in an F-104.
Two seat training version. Note the periscope for back-seat landings!
I had the good fortune to work with a former USAF test pilot and aggressor pilot in my National Guard unit. The aggressor pilots were trained to mimic Soviet tactics at Red Flag exercises.
Having closely studied Soviet aircraft he had this little tidbit about Sukhoi:
When you look at a Sukhoi prototype it's nice and clean. After they've crashed a bunch of them, it will have sprouted all sorts of stall fences and vortex generators to make it fly properly. There are graveyards in Russia full of Sukhoi test pilots.
The biggest weakness of the SU-15, however, was its lack of any look-down/shoot-down capability. By the time this aircraft entered service US bomber tactics had already switched to low level penetration. These were still in service when I was flying B-52s and we didn't consider them to be much of a threat for that very reason. PVO came to prefer MiG-23s over the SU-15 because the MiG at least had
some capability against a low flying target.
The SU-15 is most notable for shooting down KAL Flight 007 in 1983. Most of what can be said about that incident has already been written so I'm not going to beat it to death here.
There was one interesting fact that came out of incident - as the SU-15 was lining up for a missile shot, the 747 reached one of its programmed navigational waypoints and began a gentle 30-degree-banked airliner turn to the right. This was enough to cause the Sukhoi's radar to break lock and force the pilot to circle around for another pass.
Against a well trained bomber crew that was maneuvering and employing countermeasures one of these would have had a very tough time.
Kind of sad to see them end up like this. SU-15, SU-11 and SU-9 (I think) all in a row.
These stayed in service until the end of the Soviet Union in 1993. Ukraine kept theirs around until 1996. The Russians actually put some of them in storage in case they're ever needed again.
Cool SU-15 video. There are actually 4 parts to this.
SU-9 video, in Russian.
And another. This one actually has footage of the K-5 missiles being fired.
That's all for today. There's more Cold War fun to come.