MiG-23

The American pilots who flew Floggers were all experienced test pilots with many hours under their belts.
Just look under Constant Peg.
So the professional status is beyond reproach. One story is that a Flogger even on a F-16 six was still at a huge disadvantage because the Viper could be on the Flogger in a moment. The Flogger guns and runs and that's it. I like one story that if the wings were swept back the Flogger is running and if the wings were straight then it's trying to dogfight so an opposing pilot can tell straight away the intent of the Flogger pilot.

If you have any Flogger stories then please tell as I would love to hear them. Although Poland do fly some old WarPac jets but the Flogger is not one of them...

28th fighter regiment of PAF was equipped with Mig23mf, in1997 or 98 we had participated in serious exercise with USAF, including mockup combat against F16s and 15s, first day od exercises generally confirmed superiority of US airplanes and tactics, that was mainly because exercises scenario was written by USAF in a manner " this how we imagine ww3" . Day 2 they accepted slight scenario changes and result was much better for Red forces, good enough for my regiment that US commanders protested bringing up fact that Red forces have used tactics which they haven't been awared - i'm citing this from memory - exact wording could be slightly different. This one more proof that equipment quality is important but human factor may slightly change force balance in surprising way.

I have load of questions about MiG-23 but where get answers?
What was the true kill probability of the R-23/24 or the R-60?
What was the effective combat radius of say the Polish Flogger-B?
What was the radar range?
What tactics did they use?

I assume it was straight line run and gun as dogfight was not its thing.

However in say the 1980s there was plenty of NATO aircraft which was looking shaky against a Flogger. Mirages, Starfighters, Phantoms, Jaguars.

Even NATO F-16 like Belgium were Sidewinder and guns only so the extra range of the R-23 would come in handy and if you can run fast enough before they get of a sidewinder shot it can either be flared away or even out ranged.

Here answers on your questions:
- R23T/R - 0,6 for large slowly manouvring targets type B-52 for example (theoretical number not considering using defensive aids by target) - export version MF can use either of them but not simultaniously, Soviet airplanes can use both type of medium range missiles simultaniously - R-23 was basically useless against fighter type targets, any hard maneuver depleted missile energy pretty quicly
R-60 - 0,8 again this is theoretical number
- aircraft endurance reached 5 hours for the high/economical flight profile - using afterburner can eat all your fuel within 3 minutes
- radar range it is very complex question - but simplifying B-52 size targets it may be around 50km close to maximal range of R23 missile, now you may compare RCS of B-52 to any given type and estimate detection range drop (detection range is NOT equal to the radar lock range), in many cases thermolocator was significantly more combat effective than radar
- most effective tactics was GCI, very low level approach using ground clutter to hide airplane from fighters and AWACS radars, mutidirectional attack to saturate decision making system, airplane radars off to limit ECM effectivenss, use thermolocator mainly and last time near vertical zoom attack, surprise effect was a key

Good video on the MiG-23 with cockpit tour.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H3NfLNu6z4