One of the most important tactical war-planes of the Soviet Union, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (NATO reporting name 'Flogger') was first flown in prototype form during 1966, entering service for evaluation some four years later. This air comabt fighter, and its ground-attack MiG-27 derivative, was in large-scale production between 1969 and 1984.

Designed to provide Frontal Aviation with a tactical fighter offering secondary ground-attack capability, and capable of meeting contemporary Western fighters on more than equal terms, the MiG-23 was designed around the primary aim of an aircraft that could operate effectively without being tied to massive concrete runways. The Mikoyan bureau is known to have adopted two approaches to this requirement: first was the Ye-23 (or Ye-230) prototype, which was of tailed-delta configuration and incorporated high-lift .devices to give STOL capability, powered by a single turbofan engine supplemented by a battery of Kolesov lift-jets amidships for VTOL operations; the alternative prototype was the Ye-231, which deleted the lift-jets and replaced the delta wing by a variable-geometry wing very similar to that of the General Dynamics F-111. The prototypes were evaluated during 1966-67, with a decision to develop the swing-wing Ye-231 finalised probably during 1968, resulting in the pre-production MiG-23S 'Flogger-A' which, powered by a Tumansky R-27 turbojet with an afterburning thrust of 10200kg, first entered service for operational evaluation in 1970-71. At about this time it must have been decided to optmise the MiG-23 as an air-combat fighter, and to develop a dedicated ground-attack parallel version, which was allocated the designation MiG-27. In consequence, aerodynamic changes were made to the MiG-23, the fuselage structure being lightened and more advanced avionics being introduced by the time the initial MiG-23M version entered service in 1973. More or less simultaneously the dedicated attack variant was developed and, while having much in common with the MiG-23, this was sufficiently different to warrant the allocation of the separate designation MiG-27. This differs primarily by having a completely redesigned forward fuselage, providing a betterfield of viewforthe pilot, increased armour protection, terrain-avoidance radar and provision to deploy a wide variety of air-to-surface weapons. There appear to be only two versions of the MiG-27, differing in the shape of the nose, avionics and aerodynamics, and these have the NATO reporting names 'Fiogger-D' and 'Flogger-J'

Both the MiG-23 and MiG-27 are in large-scale use with the former Soviet air force, an estimated 3,000 reported being operational. They served with the Warsaw Pact air forces, and were exported to t'he air arms of Algeria, Angola, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hungary, India, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Poland, South Yemen, Syria and Vietnam. The MiG-23M/K 'Flogger J' is also currently in production in India.