МиГ-21 СМТ | Beast SMT | War Thunder Sorties | Simulator Battle

During the early 1970s, the issue of low range in the MiG-21s was brought to attention of the higher ups in the Soviet Union and the Mikoyan design chain. The issue caused by high fuel consumption of the R-13 engine coupled with the small amount of fuel carried on board in this interceptor&small airframe. Two solutions were quickly devised, the first being a upgraded, more efficient engine, which would not be ready for a while. The other solution was to simply hammer in a larger fuel tank into the MiG-21&airframe. The resulting design for the second solution was the MiG-21SMT (Sapfir Modernizirovannyy Toplivo, "Sapphire [Radar], Modernized, Fuel [Increased]"). This variant featured a plethora of upgrades, namely the updated model of the Sapfir radar and its respective fire control system, allowing the aircraft to use not only R-3R radar guided missiles, but the latest R-60 and R-60M close range missiles. But the largest difference in this variant was the increased fuel load from the comically large saddle tank added, earning this variant the nickname "Hunchback" among its pilots, who strongly disliked flying it. The SMT also featured a strongly upgraded engine, to cope with the weight increase of the extra fuel and new avionics, but this was sadly not enough to appease the pilots, who found the SMT to be generally unfavorable to fly compared to the older, lighter, and more nimble Fishbeds. The "Hunchback" was so unpopular with Soviet pilots (who regularly complained to their...