Yakovlev Yak-38 Forger — History, Specs & Stories

Yakovlev Yak-38 Forger Soviet VTOL naval fighter in flight
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Yakovlev Yak-38
“Forger”

The Soviet Navy’s only operational vertical-takeoff fighter — a three-engine carrier jet that could rise straight off a deck, but struggled to carry much once it did.

Mach 0.95Top speed · subsonic
3 engines1 vectored cruise + 2 lift jets
~231Aircraft built (all variants)
1976Entered service · first flight 1971
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense · Public domain
RoleVTOL naval strike fighterEraCold WarMotor1 × vectored cruise + 2 × lift jetsOriginUSSR · Yakovlev OKBStatusRetiredWant to fly a fighter jet yourself?
La historia

The Yak-38 Forger: the Soviet Navy’s vertical-takeoff gamble

The Yak-38 was the Soviet Union’s first — and only — operational vertical- and short-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL/STOVL) combat jet. When the Soviet Navy laid down its Kiev-class ships in the late 1960s, it needed a fixed-wing aircraft that could fly from their short decks without steam catapults. Yakovlev, which had spent most of a decade experimenting with jet lift on the ungainly Yak-36 “Freehand” testbed, answered with the Yak-36M — redesignated Yak-38 in service. It first flew on 15 January 1971 and joined the fleet aboard the carrier Kiev in 1976.

Its defining feature was a three-engine layout. Where Britain’s Harrier used a single engine with four swivelling nozzles, the Yak-38 used three: one vectored-thrust cruise engine in the tail, plus two dedicated lift jets standing almost vertically behind the cockpit. The lift jets fired only for takeoff, hover and landing; in level flight they were simply dead weight and drag. To manage the split-second dangers of the hover, the jet carried a world-first automatic ejection system wired to fire the pilot the instant the aircraft departed control on takeoff or landing.

The result was an aircraft that could do the trick but struggled to do the job. Range and payload were poor, and in hot or high-altitude conditions the lift engines lost so much thrust that the Forger could barely lift a useful weapon load — a limitation brutally exposed during a 1980 test deployment to Afghanistan, where the jets could reportedly carry only a token pair of small bombs and flew mostly in the cool of early morning. A high accident rate — commonly cited as around a third of the fleet lost — underlined how unforgiving the VTOL regime was. The Yak-38 is widely remembered less as a successful warplane than as a technology stepping-stone.

That stepping-stone pointed somewhere. Yakovlev’s intended successor, the supersonic Yak-141, flew but was cancelled as the Soviet Union collapsed. In the mid-1990s Lockheed Martin briefly cooperated with Yakovlev and reportedly obtained Yak-141 documentation — fuelling an enduring, and genuinely contested, claim that Soviet VTOL work helped inform the STOVL F-35B. The Yak-38 itself was withdrawn in the early 1990s, having proved that Soviet naval VTOL was possible — even if it was never quite practical.

It could take off vertically. It just couldn’t carry very much once it had.The Forger’s paradox — a fighter defined by its limits
01The Yakovlev Yak-38 Forger’s origins: from the Yak-36 “Freehand” to a carrier fighter

Yakovlev began serious jet-VTOL research around 1960. Its testbed, the Yak-36 “Freehand”, used twin vectored turbojets and in 1966 became one of the first jets to take off vertically, hover, transition to wing-borne flight and land vertically. But it lacked the thrust and range to be a weapon — it was a flying laboratory, not a fighter.

The lessons produced the combat-oriented Yak-36M: a slimmer airframe with a completely different propulsion philosophy of one cruise engine plus two lift jets, folding wings for hangar stowage, and naval systems for the Kiev-class ships. Redesignated Yak-38, it entered Soviet Naval Aviation service on 11 August 1976. A two-seat trainer, the Yak-38U “Forger-B”, followed to teach the demanding transition between vertical and forward flight.

Design & Engineering

What makes the Yak-38 Forger special

01

A three-engine VTOL arrangement

The Forger’s signature is its combined propulsion: one rear vectored-thrust cruise engine (Tumansky/Soyuz R-27V-300) with two rotating nozzles, plus two dedicated lift jets (Rybinsk RD-36-35VFR) mounted vertically behind the cockpit. The lift jets provided vertical thrust for takeoff, hover and landing, then shut down — leaving them as pure dead weight and internal volume in cruise, one root cause of the type’s short range.

02

The automatic ejection seat

A lift-engine failure or excessive bank in the hover was effectively unrecoverable, and gave a pilot no time to react. So the Yak-38’s seat was wired to fire automatically — without any pilot command — if the jet departed controlled flight during takeoff or landing (commonly cited as past roughly 60° of bank). It is widely regarded as the first automatic ejection system on a fixed-wing fighter, and is credited with saving several pilots.

03

Naval STOVL from Kiev-class ships

The Yak-38 was the Soviet Navy’s first operational fixed-wing carrier aircraft, flying from the Project 1143 Kiev-class ships — officially rated as “heavy aviation cruisers” bristling with anti-ship missiles. It used vertical and, later, short-takeoff techniques, folded its wings for hangar stowage, and in 1983 even flew from a civilian roll-on/roll-off ship to prove dispersed basing.

02The Yak-38 Forger’s three engines versus the Harrier’s one: two answers to the same problem

Both the Yak-38 and the Harrier had to solve the same puzzle — how to make a jet hover — and chose opposite paths. The Harrier used a single Pegasus engine whose four vectoring nozzles swivelled together, so all of its thrust was available in both hover and cruise. The Yak-38 split the task: a rear cruise engine for forward flight and two separate lift jets for the vertical phases. The Soviet scheme used simpler nozzles on the main engine, but the two lift jets added weight, drag and failure modes, took up fuel volume, and reportedly needed overhaul after very few running hours. Western assessments generally rated the Forger behind the Sea Harrier in sensors, weapons, range and payload; its clearest advantages were the automatic ejection seat and, later, automated engine-transition control.

03The Yak-38 Forger and the F-35B: what the Yak-141 successor did and did not pass on

The Yak-38 was always seen as an interim step toward a supersonic VTOL fighter. That successor, the Yak-141 (Yak-41) “Freestyle”, flew in the late 1980s but never entered production — undone by accidents, the Soviet collapse and lost funding. In the mid-1990s Lockheed Martin and Yakovlev entered a brief cooperation, and Lockheed reportedly received Yak-141 technical documentation. This underpins the widely repeated claim that Soviet VTOL work informed the F-35B. It should be treated with care: the two designs share a broadly similar STOVL layout (lift device forward, vectoring nozzle aft) and a documented brief corporate cooperation occurred, but a direct causal design lineage is contested and not firmly established — several analysts argue the resemblance is largely convergent engineering rather than a copied blueprint.

Datos técnicos

Yak-38 Forger full specifications

Figures are broadly for the improved Yak-38M; sources vary, and contested values (especially range and combat radius) are hedged. Performance fell sharply in hot or high-altitude conditions.

Airframe & Performance

Multitud
1
Longitud
~16.4 m (53 ft 8 in)
Envergadura
~7.3 m (folds to ~4.9 m)
Altura
~4.25 m (13 ft 11 in)
Max takeoff weight
~11,300 kg (commonly cited)
Max speed
~Mach 0.95 (~1,050 km/h), subsonic
Techo de servicio
~11,000–12,000 m
Radio de combate
Short — reportedly ~150–200 km typical

Propulsion, Payload & Cost

Cruise engine
1 × Tumansky/Soyuz R-27V-300 vectored-thrust
Lift engines
2 × Rybinsk RD-36-35VFR lift jets
Ordnance
~2,000 kg across 4 underwing hardpoints
Typical weapons
GSh-23 gun pod, R-60 (AA-8) missiles, Kh-23, bombs, rockets
First flight
15 January 1971
Built
~231 (all variants, incl. Yak-38M & Yak-38U)
Unit cost
No reliable public figure (Soviet costs undisclosed)
Cost per flight hour
No reliable public figure
04The Yak-38 Forger’s operating costs: why the real burden was measured in lost airframes

Soviet military procurement and operating costs were never publicly disclosed, so any dollar figure for the Yak-38 would be pure speculation — and this page does not invent one. What is documented is the aircraft’s real-world operational burden. The two lift jets reportedly needed overhaul after only a couple of dozen running hours, keeping availability low and maintenance crews busy. And the accident record was severe: sources commonly cite that roughly a third of the fleet was lost to accidents over the type’s life. In practical terms, the Forger was expensive not in rubles that anyone published, but in airframes and in the constant care its unforgiving VTOL system demanded.

Timeline

From the Freehand testbed to fleet retirement

~1960

Yakovlev begins jet-VTOL research

The Yakovlev OKB starts exploring vertical-lift jet flight, the work that will lead to the Yak-36 and eventually the Yak-38.

1966

Yak-36 “Freehand” proves the concept

The experimental Yak-36 completes a full vertical-takeoff, hover, transition and vertical-landing cycle — but lacks the range and payload to fight.

1971

Yak-36M first flight

The combat-oriented Yak-36M — later the Yak-38 — makes its maiden flight on 15 January 1971 with its new three-engine layout.

1976

Enters service aboard Kiev

The Yak-38 joins Soviet Naval Aviation on 11 August 1976, flying from the lead Kiev-class carrier as the fleet’s first fixed-wing type.

1978

Yak-38U trainer enters service

The two-seat Yak-38U “Forger-B” arrives to teach the demanding VTOL transition; it carries a stepped second cockpit and no weapons.

1980

Afghanistan trial exposes the limits

Operation Romb sends four Yak-38s to Shindand; hot-and-high air guts lift-engine thrust, and the jets can carry only token loads.

1982

Armed intercept over the Arabian Sea

Two armed Yak-38s from the carrier Minsk intercept aircraft from USS Enterprise — a rare moment of the Forger looking the part.

~1985

Improved Yak-38M in service

The Yak-38M brings uprated engines and detail improvements, but the type’s core range and payload limits remain.

1991–92

Retired with the Soviet collapse

The Yak-38 is withdrawn as the USSR dissolves; its supersonic successor, the Yak-141, is cancelled before entering production.

Stories & Eyewitnesses

Twelve Yak-38 Forger stories

Origins

From Freehand to Forger

The whole programme traces to the ungainly Yak-36 “Freehand” testbed.

Read the full story
Yakovlev spent most of the 1960s learning how to make a jet hover. Its Yak-36 “Freehand” used twin vectored turbojets and in 1966 became one of the first jets to take off vertically, hover, transition to wing-borne flight and land vertically. But it had neither the range nor the payload to be a weapon — it was a flying laboratory whose lessons made the Yak-38 possible.
Engineering

Three engines, one hover

Unlike the single-engine Harrier, the Forger used a cruise engine plus two lift jets.

Read the full story
The Yak-38’s answer to vertical flight was to split the work: a rear vectored-thrust cruise engine for forward flight, and two dedicated lift jets standing vertically behind the cockpit for takeoff, hover and landing. The scheme kept the main engine’s nozzles simple, but the lift jets were dead weight in cruise and added weight, drag and failure modes — a trade that helped make the Forger’s range one of the worst of any Cold War fighter.
Safety

The seat that fired itself

The Yak-38’s ejection seat could punch the pilot out automatically.

Read the full story
A lift-engine failure or a sharp roll in the hover left no time for a human to react. So the Forger’s seat was wired to fire automatically — without any command from the pilot — if the jet departed control on takeoff or landing, commonly cited as past roughly 60 degrees of bank. Regarded as the first automatic ejection system on a fixed-wing fighter, it is credited with saving several pilots from otherwise-fatal departures.
Afganistán

Humbled at Shindand

In 1980 the desert heat robbed the Forger of nearly all its lift.

Read the full story
During Operation Romb in 1980, four Yak-38s deployed to Shindand air base at around 1,100 m elevation. In the daytime heat the thin air cut lift-engine thrust so severely that each jet could reportedly lift only two small 100 kg bombs and minimal fuel, and flying was largely confined to the cool early-morning hours. Only about a dozen sorties were flown, and the trial concluded that helicopters were far better suited to the conditions.
Attrition

One in three lost

Sources commonly cite that about a third of the fleet was destroyed in accidents.

Read the full story
The unforgiving VTOL transition, unreliable lift engines and the sheer difficulty of shipboard vertical operations took a heavy toll. Sources commonly report that roughly one Yak-38 in three was lost in an accident over the type’s service life — an extraordinarily high rate that says as much about the difficulty of the flight regime as about the aircraft itself.
Engines

The twenty-two-hour lift jets

The two lift jets reportedly needed overhaul after only a couple of dozen hours.

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The dedicated lift jets that made vertical takeoff possible were also a maintenance headache. Reportedly good for only around 22 hours of running time between overhauls, they kept fleet availability low and ground crews busy. Because they did nothing but add weight once the jet was in level flight, they were a constant reminder of the price the Forger paid for its party trick.
Cold War

Confronting the Enterprise

In 1982 armed Yak-38s intercepted aircraft from a US carrier.

Read the full story
On 16 December 1982, two armed Yak-38s launched from the carrier Minsk and intercepted aircraft from USS Enterprise over the Arabian Sea — reportedly the first time Soviet VTOL fighters intercepted American warplanes while armed. For a jet more often remembered for its limits, it was a rare moment of the Forger doing exactly what a carrier fighter is supposed to do.
Ships

Not a carrier, on paper

The ships that carried it were officially “heavy aviation cruisers.”

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The Kiev-class ships that operated the Yak-38 — Kiev, Minsk, Novorossiysk and Baku — were classified by the Soviets as “heavy aviation cruisers” rather than aircraft carriers, and were festooned with cruiser-style anti-ship missiles. The designation helped with treaty rules on warships passing the Turkish Straits. The Forger, in other words, shared its deck with a cruiser’s worth of weaponry.
Basing

Fighter from a cargo ship

In 1983 the Soviets flew Yak-38s from a civilian merchant vessel.

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To test whether the jump-jet could disperse to improvised platforms the way RAF Harriers scattered into German forests, the Soviets in 1983 flew Yak-38s from a civilian roll-on/roll-off cargo ship. The experiment showed the Forger’s VTOL flexibility even if, in practice, the fleet always operated it from the purpose-built Kiev-class decks.
Trainer

The two-seater with a hump

The Yak-38U stretched the fuselage and stacked a second cockpit.

Read the full story
Teaching pilots the split-second VTOL transition demanded a trainer, and the Yak-38U “Forger-B” obliged — lengthening the fuselage and adding a second, stepped cockpit ahead of the first. It carried no weapons; it existed purely to school pilots in the most dangerous phases of vertical flight before they tried it for real over the sea.
Comparison

Behind the Sea Harrier

Western assessments generally rated the Forger below the Sea Harrier.

Read the full story
On sensors, weapons, range and payload, Western analysts generally rated the Yak-38 behind Britain’s Sea Harrier. The Harrier’s single-engine design was lighter and more efficient, and it could fly flexible rolling and short takeoffs with far greater combat radius. The Forger’s genuine edges were its automatic ejection seat and its automated engine-transition control — clever systems on an aircraft that struggled to deliver combat value.
Legacy

The stepping-stone to the F-35B?

The Forger’s cancelled successor sits at the heart of a contested claim.

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Yakovlev’s supersonic Yak-141 was meant to succeed the Yak-38, but it was cancelled as the USSR fell. In the mid-1990s Lockheed Martin briefly cooperated with Yakovlev and reportedly obtained Yak-141 documents — fuelling the enduring claim that Soviet VTOL work helped shape the STOVL F-35B. Serious analysts caution that the resemblance is largely convergent engineering, not a copied design; the lineage is real as a story, but contested as fact.
Gallery

The Yak-38 Forger in pictures

A Yakovlev Yak-38 Forger in level flight the Soviet Navys VTOL naval fighter.
A Yakovlev Yak-38 Forger in level flight — the Soviet Navy’s VTOL naval fighter.Photo: U.S. Department of Defense · Public domain
The Kiev-class carrier Minsk underway with four Yak-38s spotted on the flight deck.
The Kiev-class carrier Minsk underway with four Yak-38s spotted on the flight deck.Photo: U.S. Navy · Public domain
Two Yak-38s over a carrier deck, armed with AA-8 Aphid air-to-air missiles.
Two Yak-38s over a carrier deck, armed with AA-8 Aphid air-to-air missiles.Photo: U.S. Department of Defense · Public domain
An air-to-air underside view of a Forger-A, showing its lift-jet bays and stores.
An air-to-air underside view of a Forger-A, showing its lift-jet bays and stores.Photo: U.S. Department of Defense · Public domain
A preserved Yak-38 (s/n 1010) on display at the Vadim Zadorozhny Technical Museum near Moscow.
A preserved Yak-38 (s/n 1010) on display at the Vadim Zadorozhny Technical Museum near Moscow.Photo: Mike1979 Russia · CC BY-SA 4.0
The two-seat Yak-38U Forger-B trainer, with its stepped tandem cockpit.
The two-seat Yak-38U “Forger-B” trainer, with its stepped tandem cockpit.Photo: Rob Schleiffert · CC BY-SA 2.0
Watch

The Yak-38 Forger in motion

A curated video feature for the Yak-38 Forger is coming soon. In the meantime, explore the photo gallery above and the operations map below.

Operations

Where the Yak-38 Forger operated

Combat & Service Record

The record that defines the Yak-38

The Yak-38 scored no aerial victories and fought no war; its record is one of hard-won experience rather than combat success. Its single operational test under fire — the 1980 Operation Romb deployment to Afghanistan — exposed how badly its VTOL performance collapsed in heat and altitude, and it flew only about a dozen largely inconclusive sorties. At sea it served aboard the four Kiev-class ships until the early 1990s, and in 1982 armed Forgers from Minsk intercepted US carrier aircraft over the Arabian Sea. Set against those thin operational credits is a severe safety record: sources commonly cite that roughly a third of the fleet was lost to accidents.

1980Afghanistan trial — Operation Romb
~1 in 3Of the fleet reportedly lost to accidents
0Confirmed aerial combat victories

Compare the combat record of every military aircraft. Figures as of July 2026; contested values are hedged.

Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about the Yak-38 Forger

Can I fly in a Yak-38?
No — the Yak-38 Forger was a single-seat Soviet naval VTOL fighter, it was retired in the early 1990s, and no example flies today, so there is no way to book a ride in one. You can, however, fly in several genuine military jets today — see migflug.com/flights-prices/.
Why did the Yak-38 have three engines when the Harrier had one?
The Soviets chose a hybrid layout: one rear vectored-thrust cruise engine plus two dedicated lift jets behind the cockpit. It avoided the Harrier’s complex single-engine, four-nozzle design, but the two lift jets were dead weight in cruise — adding weight, drag and failure modes and helping make the Forger’s range one of the worst of its era.
What was special about its ejection seat?
It could fire automatically, without any command from the pilot, if the aircraft departed controlled flight during takeoff or landing — commonly cited as past roughly 60° of bank or on a lift-engine failure. It is widely regarded as the first automatic ejection system on a fixed-wing fighter, and is credited with saving several pilots.
What happened when the Yak-38 was sent to Afghanistan?
In the 1980 Operation Romb trial at Shindand, hot-and-high conditions cut the lift engines’ thrust so badly that each jet could reportedly lift only a token pair of small bombs and fly mostly at dawn. About a dozen sorties produced no meaningful results, and the trial found helicopters far better suited to the conditions.
Was the Yak-38 supersonic?
No. It topped out at around Mach 0.95 — subsonic. Its intended supersonic successor, the Yak-141, flew but was cancelled before entering production.
Did the Yak-38 really inspire the F-35B?
It is genuinely contested. Its successor, the Yak-141, shares a broadly similar STOVL concept, and Lockheed Martin briefly cooperated with Yakovlev in the mid-1990s and reportedly received Yak-141 documents. But credible analysts caution that any direct influence on the F-35B is unproven and likely overstated — the resemblance may be convergent engineering rather than a copied design.
Who operated the Yak-38, and is it still in service?
The Soviet Union was the only operator, flying it from the four Kiev-class ships (Kiev, Minsk, Novorossiysk and Baku) from 1976. There were no export customers, and the type was retired in the early 1990s as the USSR dissolved.
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Continue the tour

The Western RivalHarrier Jump JetThe single-engine VTOL jet the Forger was always measured against — lighter, longer-legged and far more successful in service.Read the Harrier storyThe Successor at SeaSu-33 Flanker-DThe conventional carrier fighter that replaced VTOL on Russia’s decks — big, fast and ski-jump launched.Read the Su-33 storyThe Soviet ContemporaryMiG-29 FulcrumThe agile Soviet fighter of the same era — and the land-based benchmark the naval Forger could never match.Read the MiG-29 story
Sources & Further Reading

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