Interceptors in The Soviet Union and Russia
During the Cold War, an entire military service, not just an arm of the pre-existing air force, was designated for their use. The planes of the Soviet Anti-Air Defense (PVO-S) differed from those of the Soviet Air Force (VVS) in that they were by no means small or crudely simple, but huge and refined with large, sophisticated radars; they could not take off from grass, only concrete runways; they could not be disassembled and shipped back to a maintenance center in a boxcar. Similarly, their pilots were given less training in combat maneuvers, and more in radio-directed pursuit. The main interceptor was first the Su-9, then the Su-15, and then the MiG-25. The auxiliary Tu-28, an area range interceptor, was notably the heaviest fighter aircraft ever to see service in the world. The latest and most advanced interceptor aircraft is the MiG-31. Although it is the first one to carry an internal cannon, to this day it remains too cumbersome for dogfights with the contemporary air superiority fighters.
Russia, despite merging the PVO into the VVS, still plans to maintain a number of dedicated interceptors.
Read more about this topic: Interceptor Aircraft
Famous quotes containing the words soviet, union and/or russia:
““Is there life on Mars?” “No, not there either.””
—Russian saying popular in the Soviet period, trans. by Vladimir Ivanovich Shlyakov (1993)
“And thus they sang their mysterious duo, sang of their nameless hope, their death-in-love, their union unending, lost forever in the embrace of night’s magic kingdom. O sweet night, everlasting night of love! Land of blessedness whose frontiers are infinite!”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“A fool may be a dangerous customer, but the fact of his having such a vulnerable top-end turns danger into a first-rate sport; and whatever defects the old administration in Russia had, it must be conceded that it possessed one outstanding virtue—a lack of brains.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)