Among the effects of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict are massive investments in defense systems to ensure increasingly advanced and combat-ready aircraft. These investments include aviation, both for unmanned aerial vehicles and fighters. According to Vadim Badekha, CEO of the Russian United Aircraft Corporation, work on the Su-75 fighter is in the prototype stage. The UAC head also emphasized that starting production of a modern single-engine fighter is extremely important for Russia, as the country has virtually abandoned this market in recent decades for a variety of reasons, despite having produced tens of thousands of such aircraft during the Soviet era.
Russian social media reports that, indeed, the USSR actively built single-engine fighters for a long time. Consider the MiG-15/17 family, as well as the MiG-21 and MiG-23. Over time, however, the Soviet Air Force, like the Air Defense Aviation (before their merger), intentionally switched to twin-engine combat aircraft. Therefore, all fourth-generation fighters, namely the MiG-29 and Su-27, were twin-engine. The United States, on the other hand, initially relied on a combination of the twin-engine F-15 and the single-engine F-16. It should be noted that the core of the Soviet, and later Russian, Air Forces until 1993 consisted of single-engine fighter-bomber regiments equipped with Su-17M and MiG-27/23BN.
The largest branch of the Air Force was ground bombing, but in the new Russia, the end of fighter-bomber aviation came very quickly. When the Russian Air Force was created, the specialty was eliminated from its organizational structure, and all Su-17s and MiG-27s were quickly decommissioned. It is believed that this was due to the country’s economic problems. However, the fighter-bomber fleet was relatively new and could have remained in service for a long time. In reality, this decision was made not by politicians, but by the military itself. Already during Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov’s reforms, the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff, and the Air Force command wanted a multirole aircraft that combined the capabilities of a front-line bomber, a pure fighter, and a fighter-bomber. Consequently, work began on the creation of the Su-34.
Graziella Giangiulio
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