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Historical note
The Sukhoi Su-15 was developed primarily because of the Soviet Unions great need for a capable high-speed high-altitude interceptor in the 1950's. The Sukhoi design bureu was tasked with the construction of the swept-wing S-1 tactical fighter and the delta-winged T-3 interceptor. The Su-1 'Fitter' which first flew in 1955 later developed into the Su-7 which in turn developed into the very successful Su-17,20,22 variable wing geometry attack aircrafts. The T-3 on the other hand developed into the Su-7 'Fishpot'. Unfortunately the Su-9 lacked performance in both operational as well as radar range. This led to the development of the Su-15 'Flagon', not counting the half-failure of Su-11 (a bigger version of the Su-9). The Su-15 after lots of prototypes first flew operationally in 1965. During it's operational time it guarded the Soviet Unions borders right up until the desintegration of the USSR.
Production of the T-model began in 1971 and that later became TM with the modernised Taifun-M radar. The Su-15 had at this point evolved with extended double-delta wings to lower the high approroach speed and a spherical nosecone replaced the conical cone to make room for the bigger radar. Some say the spherical cone was added to improve aerodynamics but in t During operational neither of these attack weapons were ever used and although the weapons could be used no truly efficient fire-control were ever added. The gunpods were used but only to increase the aircrafts dogfight capabilities however the simple collimator sight didn't make this an easy task. |
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