Mihai Vălceleanu
MiG-23MS, the worst MiG-23?
In Hush-Kit’s video (see end of article) on the 10 worst Soviet aircraft, the MiG-23MS was lambasted as a piece of shit. Today, I’m NOT going to complain about how crappy the MiG-23MS was. Instead, I will tell you two things which it did better than the MiG-23M and MiG-23MF.
1. Internal fuel capacity
The MiG-23MS had the largest internal fuel capacity of any MiG-23 fighter variant. Since it didn’t have the heavy and voluminous Sapfir-23D-III radar of the MiG-23M, a part of the avionics bay behind the cockpit could be used for more fuel. The extra space was used to install fuel tank № 1a, and tank № 1 was larger, same as on the MiG-23BN. This meant that the MiG-23MS had 5400 litres of usable internal fuel (again, same as on the MiG-23BN). Total internal fuel was 5626 litres. For comparison, the MiG-23M and MF had 4700 litres of usable internal fuel (4910-4928 L of total internal fuel). The MiG-23ML had an even smaller internal capacity, since it doesn’t have fuel tank № 4 either. Just 4300 L usable internal fuel volume, 4440-4458 L of total volume. The worst was the MiG-23UB, with 4240 L total internal fuel volume.
Note: if you want to calculate weights, standard Soviet fuel density at 15° C considered was 0.830 kg/L for the T-1 kerosene, and 0.785 kg/L for TS-1.
2: Empty aircraft weight
Since the MiG-23MS swapped the MiG-23M’s Sapfir-23D-III (or MiG-23MF’s Sapfir-23E) for the MiG-21’s RP-22SM “Jaybird” radar (just like the MiG-23S). This resulted in a noticeable weight reduction. I’ve never managed to find out how much an empty MiG-23MS weighs, but I can look at the radar weights and take a guess. The MiG-23M/MF radar weighs 564.5/641 kg. The MiG-21BIS radar (RP-22SMA) weighs 196.3 kg.
Now we can’t just subtract the difference between the two, because I don’t know if any ballast weight was necessary. If not, then that would mean at most 368.2/444.7 kg difference between the MS and M/MF. Considering also the lack of TP-23 IRST, my guess about 58 kg (that’s how much the TP-23M, изд. 26Ш1, of the MiG-23ML weighs).
So at most, a 426.2/502.7 kg weight difference, for reference an empty MiG-23M/MF should weigh about 10845-10890 kg. An empty MiG-23ML/MLD-export should weigh 10150 kg to 10230 kg (some give 10310 kg).
But can we find any confirmation for these from former MiG-23 pilots?
But can we find any confirmation from former MiG-23 pilots? The following pilot’s impressions are the only that I’ve found that confirm these features of the MiG-23MS:
Of course, none of this means to insinuate that the MiG-23MS was a good fighter. It had poor weapons (R-3S, R-3R & R-13M at best), structural problems limiting the maximum load factor, crude flight controls, poor roll-yaw stability at high AoA (all of these giving hard-wing Phantom levels of manoeuverability at best), bad visibility out of the cockpit… really, its only redeeming features were high speed & supersonic acceleration.
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