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PFI 1971 - May - An "Operational Pause"

Aerodynamic design of a new promising front-line fighter was carried out by TsAGI together with the Sukhoi Design Bureau. The competition was also attended by the Yakovlev Design Bureau and the Sukhoi Design Bureau, including Gurevich and Mikoyan who showed their drawings. The winner was recognized by the MiG design bureau.

However, in 1971 it became clear that the DFI plane was too expensive for the needs of the Air Force. Formally, the decision board was the basis for the presentation materials prepared by the Air Force, but in fact after the meeting in the course of the work there is some "operational pause", which each of the contestants used on its own. Explanations delay work boiled down to the need to rework materials EDO advance projects, and such work actually took place. But in fact, all due to the fact that the customer in the face of the Air Force from the MAP was informally proposed to divide the work on creation of the TFIs into two separate areas: light and heavy fighters.

The "light" fighter, according to this concept, was designed to operate over its territory and near (up to 150 km) rear of the enemy. It was supposed to be simple in piloting, production and operation. The designers were given the task of equipping the aircraft with the latest at the time electronic equipment and weapons, to ensure high maneuverability and thrust-to-weight ratio.

Therefore, the project was divided into TPFI and LPFI. The preliminary design was approved by a decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the USSR Council of Ministers in 1974. By the same document, the creation of the Kulon plant (now Sukhoi Design Bureau, a branch of Sukhoi Company) was entrusted with the creation of the T-10 heavy fighter (future Su-27).

Drawings for heavy aircraft began to develop Sukhoi Design Bureau, and Mikoyan was responsible for developing the light fighter. Now it is difficult (and so does it matter?) to say to whom belonged the initiative in putting forward this proposal. In one form or another it has repeatedly put forward by NIIAS leadership at various levels discuss the problem, and it had been placed under and the corresponding theoretical basis.

E.A.Fedosov wrote: "Having worked at the institute this approach, we have created the concept of the two planes - heavy and light. The first was to have a considerable amount of fuel, increased range of application, and carry large combat payload to accompany the strike groups of our aircraft and cover them in carrying out raids throughout the depth of the front line. ...

"A light aircraft was supposed to work as a front-line fighter, a leading anti-aircraft defense of the battlefield, covering its troops from enemy air strikes.

"... We also calculated what proportion of air must be in groups, each of these aircraft. It turned out that their ratio should be 70% of light aircraft and 30% heavy. From the outset, we proceeded from the fact that large aircraft will be more expensive. At the same time, we relied on a linear relationship between the weight of the machine and its value that, looking ahead, I will say, is not justified.

"All of these justifications were joined by our specialists from the 30th Air Force Institute, which conducted the study, similar to what we did, and came to similar conclusions ... ".

According to O.Samoilovych the initiative of this proposal came from OKB Mikoyan: "SB MiG came with a radical proposal - to divide the subject into two sub-themes: Heavy PFI - anti-F-15 and light PFI - anti-F-16." The rest of the events of Oleg Sergeyevich coincides with that given in the memoirs of academician E.A.Fedosov, "In GosNIIAS and 30 CRI ACT was organized by mathematical modeling to determine the feasibility of establishing a mixed fleet. Calculations carried out on the cost ratio conditions of the Su-27 and MiG-29 is not less than 2: 1, showed that a mixed fleet is the best on the condition that it should consist of one-third of the Su-27 and two-thirds of the MiG-29".

The proposed version of the guide was arranged at MAP. It is clear that informally in the ministry to this point in time has already been decided that the program will be divided between the OKB Mikoyan and Sukhoi. In this case, the decision to develop two parallel planes instead of one is a guarantee the simultaneous employment, for two OKB and the basis for requests for a much larger amount of capital to carry out the program. Thus, this embodiment was accepted by almost everyone.

The idea was that the future Su-27 will have a greater range, carry more weapons, which will have a greater range, but will become more expensive. A light front-line fighter, the future MiG-29, possessing approximately the same set of characteristics (but a smaller radius of action) and, being equipped with a similar nomenclature of armaments (but to a lesser extent, conditionally speaking - not 10 missiles, but 6) and a similar onboard equipment system A new generation would be cheaper and more massive. As a result, a promising fleet of domestic fighter aircraft was supposed to be built as follows: about a third it was to consist of Su-27, and two thirds - of MiG-29.