In later declassified materials, the combination of the MiG-31 interceptor and the powerful R-33 missile was only put into service in the early eighties, but, in fact, the Soviet air defense armament department, which has always been fond of interceptors, began to develop this interceptor weapon long ago. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

It was on May 24, 1968 that Mikoyan Design decided to develop a modern version of the MiG-25 fighter: the e-155e-155mП, a model that was given the designation MiG-31 when it was finalized. And at that time, the test flight of the MiG-25 had not yet completely ended, and the pre-research of the next generation began.

Due to the backwardness of the USSR in electronic technology, if you want to rely on conventional methods, the MiG-31 will not have bright eyes, and you have to find another way! As a result, the ground-based phased array radar was moved into the sky to meet the needs of the interceptor, the detection distance was long, the targets that could be intercepted were many, and there were also multi-target attack capabilities.

It seems to be very advanced, but there is still a gap between this and AWG-9, such as power consumption and weight, which are several times that of AWG-9, and only the body of the MiG-31 can carry it.

At the same time, in order to cooperate with the new radar, the MiG-31 also needs a missile with a maximum range of more than 120 kilometers. The competition unfolded between the K-33 of the chief designer of the "pennant" A. Liapine and the K-50 of the chief designer M. Bisnovat. In the end, the design scheme of the "pennant" was adopted. The missile has been improved to have excellent aerodynamic performance, and at the same time, in order to reduce the aerodynamic drag and temperature of the airframe mounted. The design of the missiles semi-recessed into the fuselage was adopted, and four missiles were arranged in pairs along the fuselage. Due to the semi-concave buried arrangement, a missile ejection mechanism was also used.

The development of such missiles began in the late sixties. After entering the seventies, the test flight of the missile has begun, first on the MiG-25 test flight, with the development of the MiG-31, it also began to be mounted on the MiG-31, just in March 76, the first test target aircraft MiG-17, was successfully shot down!

The R-33 missile has already begun to mature, although it needs to be further developed. But now it has reached real combat status!

The MiG-31 hung four R-33s, which were supposed to be needed from time to time, and now, the sudden discovery of the situation gave the MiG-31 a chance.

The last pride of the Americans, that is, the Immortal Bird missiles on the Tomcat fighters, has the ability to snipe at a long distance against the MiG-25! And now, too, the USSR has caught up in this regard, and the USSR has similar missiles!

Turn on afterburner. The MiG-31 interceptor began to accelerate! Relying on the powerful engine, the MiG-31 quickly surpassed the speed of sound from cruising at Mach 0.85, and at the same time began to climb in altitude.

Fedotov in the aft compartment. At this time, he is also quickly operating his own fire control system, locking on four targets at the same time, and launching an attack. It is possible in theory, but in practice. This is the first time!

Unlike the AWG-9, the kind of flat slot radar antenna. If you want to lock the target, you have to align, if you want to lock different targets at the same time, you have to constantly refresh the data, the AWG-9 radar relies on rapid scanning, refresh the target data, to guide your own missiles, and at the end of the stage, it relies on the active seeker, and there is no need for the carrier aircraft radar to provide a beam, so as to achieve this ability to engage multiple targets.

The SBE-16 radar is achieved by changing the phase of the radar beam, controlling the radar antenna in front of it to divide the beam radiation in four directions, which can be aimed at four targets and attack at the same time! And the radar can be continuously illuminated, and semi-active radar-guided missiles can also be used.

And with the backward electronic technology of the Soviet Union, there are more manual operation steps, and this is completely a moment to test the personnel of the aft cabin!

"Ready." Fedotov, in the aft cabin, in addition to being a test pilot, was a skilled electronics engineer, and now, having quickly completed the task of assigning targets and locking them, the green radar screen, four circles, has covered the target!

At this time, the MiG-31 had climbed to an altitude of 25,000 meters, 90 kilometers away from the target, and the carrier aircraft had accelerated to Mach 2.

"Launch!" Fedotov shouted as he pressed the launch button hard.

Under the belly of the aircraft, the huge R-33 missile was easily ejected from the aircraft by the ejection mechanism, and a second later, the tail of the missile suddenly erupted a strong tongue of fire, and the ignition was successful!

One after another, four huge R-33 missiles, all successfully ignited! The first-stage rocket engine ignited, propelled the missile to accelerate to Mach 3.5, and sprinted in the direction of the target!

Although it is generally similar to AIM-54, the real shooting process is different, for example, in order to achieve a high range, the AIM-54 missile will quickly climb to an altitude of 24,000 meters after taking off, and even climb to an altitude of 30,000 meters to reduce drag and reach a high range, while the R33 missile does not need to climb upwards, because the carrier aircraft has given the missile this altitude at the time of the initial launch!

The first few seconds of flight are automatically completed by the program, and then the missile enters the mid-course radio command guidance stage.

"Damn, the target fired a missile at us!" At this moment, the four Tomcat fighters that came over from the opposite side to sneak attack, and the pilot was taken aback when he heard the report of the radar operator in the rear cabin.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was 90 kilometers, and in my impression, the effective range of the Soviet medium-range air-to-air missiles in actual combat launch did not exceed 30 kilometers.

Judging from the performance of the target, it must be the MiG-25, only this fighter can climb to an altitude of more than 20,000 meters, and accelerate to more than Mach 2, however, there is no intelligence that the MiG-25 has missiles with such a long range! Their radars may not be able to intercept targets at such distances!

Just now, under the command of AWACS, they made a surprise attack from this direction, hoping to take out the MiG-25 of the Soviets and eliminate the threat of such fighters.

Could it be that the Soviets were bluffing? How many missiles are there for fireworks? Just to get your own way out? Or did the Soviets develop a new type, or can it be called a super-MiG-25?

No one answered their questions, and in an air battle, a few seconds of hesitation could make the difference between life and death. Now, wars are going on everywhere, and if they can't break through the air defense circle of the Soviets, they won't be able to stop the Soviet surface formations from transporting supplies to Kushiro Island, and they won't be able to solve the Hokkaido conflict that has broken out!

"Launch the Immortal Bird!" After a moment's hesitation, the captain of the formation issued a combat mission. (To be continued.) )