MiG-23-98 FIGHTER TO FLY WITH NEW RADAR FROM PHAZOTRON-NIIR

Anatoly Kanashchenkov

Director General and General Designer of Phazotron-NIIR JSC

Yuri Guskov

Technical Characteristics of Phazotron-NIIR JSC-developed Airborne Radars Used in Versions of Modernization of MiG-23 Fighter

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he MiG-23 fighter, the first domestic aircraft with a variable-geometry wing, was developed by the famous MiG Design Bureau in the late 1960s. It was equipped with the Sapfir-23 airborne radar developed by NIIR. Production of the fighter was started in 1969 and continued until 1984. The MiG-23s are widely used throughout the world and they are still in service with Air Forces of many states, including CIS countries, Algeria, Angola, Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, India, Iraq, North Korea, Syria and others, 25 countries in all. Its particular features – a low landing speed with the wings spread and a high interception speed with the wings folded – gave it advantages in all operating conditions.

The Sapfir-23 multifunctional airborne radar was the first radar capable of discriminating a target against the background of the Earth due to employment of a moving target selection mode. However, the capabilities of the MiG-23 fighter do not meet the present-day combat requirements because the radar signature of new-generation fighters is lower, the Sapfir-23 airborne radar is not able to control the modern missile armament operating in other frequency ranges and it is not provided with an airborne digital computer.

MiG-23

An increase in the effectiveness of the fighter's avionics, ensuring the use of high-precision missile and bomb weapons after duly performed modernization, will put the MiG-23 again on a par with modern aircraft developed more recently. Such modernization should be based on replacement of the Sapfir-23 airborne radar with new Moskit-23 or Moskit-21K airborne radars developed and manufactured by the Phazotron-NIIR JSC (initially the Super-Kopyo airborne radar was considered for installation on the fighter but after consulting with the MiG Aviation Research and Production Complex on the versions of its arrangement and integration with the aircraft, preference was given to more advanced Moskit airborne radar).

At present, the MiG Aviation Research and Production Complex and Phazotron-NIIR JSC are capable of turning the MiG-23 fighter into a modern multifunctional powerful weapon able to reliably defend the country's sky and be employed as an offensive weapon to deliver an attack against any target: airborne, ground, waterborne.

Phazotron-NIIR JSC is ready to offer several versions of modernization of this famous fighter. Proceeding from the financial resources available, the desired and sufficient level of modernization and the tasks to be solved by the fighter, a customer may choose any of the three versions being offered.

Before a customer starts choosing the versions of modernization, he should agree with the MiG Aviation Research and Production Complex the list of operations intended to prolong the service life of the fighter until the year of 2010...