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Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-27
“Flogger”

Q: Can I fly in a MiG-27?

No. There are no public MiG-27 flights or ride experiences anywhere; every MiG-27 has been retired and surviving aircraft are museum exhibits. You can, however, fly in several genuine ex-military jets today via MiGFlug.

Q: What is the difference between the MiG-27 and the MiG-23?

Both are swing-wing Floggers, but the MiG-23 is an air-superiority fighter with a nose radar, while the MiG-27 is a dedicated ground-attack aircraft with no interception radar, an armoured ducknose, fixed intakes and a heavy cannon and bomb load for striking ground targets.

Q: What was the Indian Bahadur?

Bahadur, meaning Valiant, was the Indian name for the MiG-27ML licence-built by Hindustan Aeronautics. India was the type's largest export operator, flew it in the 1999 Kargil War and retired the last examples in December 2019.

The Soviet Union’s dedicated ground-attack Flogger — the swing-wing MiG-23 fighter rebuilt for the low-level strike mission, with an armoured ‘ducknose’ cockpit, fixed simplified intakes and a savage six-barrel 30 mm cannon. Not to be confused with its MiG-23 parent, the air-superiority fighter.

Mach 1.7Top speed at altitude · ~1,885 km/h

GSh-6-3030 mm six-barrel cannon

~1,075Built, incl. Indian licence production

1975–2019Soviet service to India’s retirement

Photo: johnxxx84 · CC BY-SA 2.0

RoleDedicated ground-attack & strikeEraCold WarMotor1 × Tumansky R-29B-300OriginUSSR · Mikoyan-GurevichStatusRetiredFly a fighter jet with MiGFlug

Het verhaal

The Flogger that traded the dogfight for the mud

The MiG-27 is often confused with the MiG-23 it grew from — but the two aircraft did very different jobs. The MiG-23 was a swing-wing air-superiority fighter, built around a big radar to intercept other aircraft. The MiG-27 was a dedicated ground-attack aircraft: the same variable-geometry planform, but re-engineered from the nose back to put bombs and cannon fire onto targets on the ground, at low level, in daylight.

That change is written all over the airframe. Mikoyan-Gurevich replaced the MiG-23’s pointed radar nose with a sharply down-sloping, armoured “ducknose” — Soviet crews called it the Utkonos (platypus) or Krokodil — that gave the pilot a far better view over the nose for aiming, and swapped the radar for a laser rangefinder and attack avionics. The complex variable intakes and long exhaust nozzle of the fighter, tuned for high-Mach interception, were replaced with fixed, simplified intakes optimised for the transonic low-level regime where a strike aircraft actually works. Heavier landing gear let it operate from rough forward airfields.

Development ran through the MiG-23B/BN fighter-bomber line of the early 1970s; the definitive dedicated version — distinct enough that NATO gave it its own designation and the Soviets renumbered it the MiG-27 — entered series production and reached Soviet service in 1975. India licence-built its own version through Hindustan Aeronautics as the “Bahadur” (Valiant), and it was India that flew the type longest, retiring the last examples only in December 2019.

A fighter’s wing, a bomber’s heart — and a cannon so violent it could damage its own airframe.The dedicated Flogger — how the MiG-23 became a strike aircraft

01MiG-23 versus MiG-27: telling the two Floggers apart

Both aircraft share the NATO reporting name “Flogger” and the same swing-wing layout, which is why they are so often mixed up. The simplest distinction is the job: the MiG-23 is a fighter — interceptor and air-superiority aircraft — with a radar in a pointed nose. The MiG-27 is a ground-attack aircraft, with no interception radar, a stepped-down armoured nose for visibility, and a cannon and bomb load built for hitting the ground.

Visually, look at the nose and the intakes. The MiG-27 has the flat, sloping “ducknose” and plain fixed air intakes; the MiG-23 has a conical radome and variable intake ramps with prominent boundary-layer splitter plates. The MiG-23BN fighter-bomber sits between the two: it uses the MiG-27-style attack nose but keeps the MiG-23’s variable intakes and, usually, its twin-barrel gun. On MiGFlug the MiG-23 has its own separate exhibit.

Design & Engineering

What makes the MiG-27 special

A swing wing tuned for low-level strike

The MiG-27 kept the MiG-23’s variable-geometry wing, with sweep selectable at roughly 16°, 45° and 72°. On a fighter that range is about balancing takeoff, cruise and supersonic dash; on the MiG-27 it was used to steady the aircraft as a weapons platform — wings spread for lift over a rough strip and slow, accurate weapons passes, wings swept back to punch through the dense, bumpy air of a high-speed run at treetop height. It was optimised for the strike mission, not the turning fight.

The GSh-6-30: a cannon that fought its own airframe

Under the belly sat the GSh-6-30, a six-barrel 30 mm Gatling-type cannon firing at around 5,000 rounds per minute. It was ferociously effective — and almost too powerful for the jet carrying it. The recoil, widely cited at several tonnes, could crack fuel tanks, knock out avionics, tear landing-gear doors and reliably shake the landing lights out of their mountings. Long bursts were banned; pilots fired in short taps to spare the airframe.

Armoured ‘ducknose’ cockpit & rough-field toughness

Flying low over a battlefield means taking small-arms and light flak, so the MiG-27’s cockpit was wrapped in armour plate and its down-sloping nose gave the pilot the forward view a bomb-aimer needs. Reinforced, heavy-duty landing gear and low-pressure tyres let it work from short, semi-prepared forward airfields close to the front — the rugged, unglamorous end of tactical air power.

02The GSh-6-30 cannon: recoil that could break the jet

The MiG-27 dropped the MiG-23’s twin-barrel 23 mm gun for the enormous GSh-6-30, mounted in a fairing under the fuselage with a few hundred rounds. At full rate it threw 30 mm shells fast enough to shred vehicles and light armour. But the same power worked against the aircraft: test and service reports describe the whole airframe shaking violently under fire, with recoil forces heavy enough to crack fuel tanks, disable instruments and dislodge equipment. Test pilot V. N. Kondaurov recorded that the aircraft shuddered and seemed to slow under the gun’s recoil. Firing was restricted to short bursts of a second or two, and the gun became one of the type’s defining — and most troublesome — features.

03Fixed intakes and the R-29B: engineering for low, not high

The MiG-23 fighter used variable intake ramps and a variable exhaust nozzle so its engine could feed a Mach-2-plus interception. A strike aircraft spends its life low and transonic, where all that complexity is dead weight and extra maintenance. So the MiG-27 was given simplified fixed intakes and a shorter fixed nozzle, matched to the Tumansky R-29B-300 turbojet optimised for low-altitude thrust. Top speed fell — roughly Mach 1.7 at height rather than the fighter’s Mach 2.3—plus — but the aircraft was lighter, cheaper, tougher and better suited to the job it was actually built for.

Technical Data

Full specifications — MiG-27M/K

Airframe & Performance

Bemanning: 1
Lengte: ~17.1 m (17.08 m)
Wingspan (spread): ~13.8 m (13.97 m)
Wingspan (swept): ~7.8 m (7.78 m)
Hoogte: ~5.0 m
Max takeoff weight: ~20,300 kg (up to ~20,670 kg)
Max speed: ~Mach 1.7 at altitude · ~1,350 km/h at sea level
Serviceplafond: ~14,000 m
Combat range: ~540–780 km (mission-dependent)

Propulsion & Armament

Motor: 1 × Tumansky R-29B-300 turbojet
Thrust: ~112.8 kN with afterburner (~78.5 kN dry)
Cannon: 1 × GSh-6-30 30 mm six-barrel (~260–300 rounds)
Ordnance: up to ~4,000 kg on 7 hardpoints
Guided weapons: Kh-23/Kh-29 missiles, laser- & TV-guided bombs (M/K); R-60 AAMs
First flight: early 1970s (MiG-23BM line)
Entered service: 1975
Built: ~1,075 incl. Indian licence
Unit cost: No reliable open figure

04The MiG-27’s cost: a Soviet product with no open price

Like most Soviet combat aircraft, the MiG-27 was a state product built for the Warsaw Pact and allied air forces, never sold on an open dollar market, so no reliable flyaway unit price exists in the public record. The clearest hard numbers come from later second-hand deals: Sri Lanka is reported to have paid on the order of US$1.75 million for remanufactured airframes around 2000, with a later batch costing considerably more. There is no credible public cost-per-flight-hour figure for the type, and any precise dollar amount attached to a MiG-27 should be read as an estimate, not a sourced fact.

Timeline

From fighter derivative to Cold-War bomb-truck

1967

The MiG-23 fighter flies

Mikoyan-Gurevich’s swing-wing MiG-23 interceptor first flies, giving the Soviets a variable-geometry airframe to adapt for other roles.

1970–71

The attack nose appears

The MiG-23B/BN fighter-bomber introduces the armoured, down-sloping “ducknose” and dedicated ground-attack avionics.

1972–73

The dedicated Flogger takes shape

The MiG-23BM adds fixed simplified intakes and the GSh-6-30 cannon — the aircraft the Soviets renumber the MiG-27.

1975

Enters Soviet service

The MiG-27 reaches Soviet Frontal Aviation as a dedicated low-level strike aircraft, eventually equipping many fighter-bomber regiments.

1981–86

India builds the ‘Bahadur’

Hindustan Aeronautics licence-produces the MiG-27ML in India as the “Bahadur” (Valiant), the export success the type never found elsewhere.

1988–89

Afghanistan

Soviet MiG-27s fly close air support late in the Soviet-Afghan War, limited by a high minimum altitude imposed by the MANPADS threat.

1999

Kargil War

Indian MiG-27s fly ground-attack sorties over the Himalayas; one is lost to an engine flameout while firing rockets, its pilot captured and later returned.

1993–2019

The Floggers retire

Russia withdraws its MiG-27s from frontline use in 1993; Sri Lanka flies them through its civil war, and India retires the last examples in December 2019.

Stories & Eyewitnesses

Twelve MiG-27 stories

Identity

Two Floggers, one name

The MiG-27 and MiG-23 share a NATO name and a wing — but not a job.

Read the full story

The single biggest source of confusion around the MiG-27 is its parent, the MiG-23. Both are swing-wing “Floggers,” and to a casual eye they look alike. But the MiG-23 is a fighter built to shoot down other aircraft with a nose radar, while the MiG-27 is a ground-attack aircraft with no interception radar, an armoured sloping nose, and weapons built for hitting targets on the ground. Getting the two mixed up is easy; the aircraft themselves were tuned for opposite ends of air combat.

Design

The platypus nose

Soviet crews nicknamed the MiG-27’s flat armoured nose the Utkonos — platypus.

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Where the MiG-23 carried a pointed radar radome, the MiG-27 has a sharply down-sloping, faceted nose that pilots and ground crews nicknamed the Utkonos, or platypus, and sometimes Krokodil (crocodile). It was not styling: deleting the interception radar and dropping the nose line gave the pilot a much better view forward and down for aiming in a diving attack, and the nose structure was armoured against ground fire. Function drove the odd, unmistakable face of the aircraft.

Firepower

The gun that shook the jet

The GSh-6-30 was so violent that firing it could crack the aircraft’s own tanks.

Read the full story

The MiG-27’s six-barrel GSh-6-30 cannon fired 30 mm shells at around 5,000 rounds a minute, and the recoil was brutal. Service accounts describe the whole airframe shuddering under fire, with the shock cracking fuel tanks, knocking out avionics, tearing gear doors and shaking the landing lights loose. Pilots were restricted to short bursts of a second or two. It was one of the hardest-hitting aircraft guns ever fielded — and a maintenance headache that its own designers spent years trying to tame.

Engineering

Simpler on purpose

The MiG-27 threw away the fighter’s variable intakes because a strike jet does not need them.

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The MiG-23 fighter had complex variable intake ramps and a variable exhaust nozzle so it could chase targets past Mach 2. The MiG-27 deliberately deleted all of that. A ground-attack aircraft spends its life low and transonic, so the extra machinery was just weight and maintenance. Fixing the intakes and shortening the nozzle made the MiG-27 lighter, cheaper and tougher, at the cost of top speed — a textbook example of designing an aircraft around the mission rather than the spec sheet.

Swing wing

Why the wings still moved

A strike aircraft rarely dogfights, so the MiG-27 used its swing wing differently.

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Keeping a variable-geometry wing on a bomb-truck might seem odd, but it earned its keep. Spread forward, the wing gave lift and low-speed control for heavy takeoffs from rough strips and for slow, deliberate weapons passes. Swept back, it cut the buffeting of a high-speed run through dense, turbulent low-level air, letting the aircraft dash to and from a target. The MiG-27 used the same wing as the MiG-23, but for stability and load-carrying rather than for the turning fight.

India

The Bahadur

India licence-built its own MiG-27 and flew the type longer than anyone.

Read the full story

The MiG-27 was not a big export success — most customers chose the MiG-23BN or the Sukhoi Su-22 instead — with one major exception. India acquired the MiG-27ML and had Hindustan Aeronautics assemble and build it locally as the “Bahadur,” meaning Valiant or brave one. Roughly 165 served the Indian Air Force, which used them hard in the strike role and kept them flying until a formal farewell at Jodhpur in December 2019, long after Russia had retired its own.

Afghanistan

Held high by the MANPADS threat

In Afghanistan the MiG-27 was kept above the altitude where its accuracy mattered most.

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Soviet MiG-27s deployed to Afghanistan late in the war, flying close air support against convoys and troop concentrations. But by the late 1980s the mujahideen were armed with shoulder-fired missiles, and to stay out of their reach the strike jets were held to a high minimum altitude of around 5,000 metres. From that height the aircraft was largely restricted to unguided bombs and rockets, blunting the low-level accuracy that was the whole point of the design. Its record there is usually judged mixed, and the Su-25 is generally seen as the more effective ground-attacker.

Kargil

Nachiketa over the Himalayas

An Indian MiG-27 was lost in the 1999 Kargil War when its engine failed during a rocket attack.

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During the 1999 Kargil War, Indian MiG-27s flew ground-attack sorties against Pakistani positions high in the mountains. On 27 May 1999 a MiG-27 flown by Flight Lieutenant Kambampati Nachiketa suffered an engine flameout while firing rockets; he ejected over hostile territory and was captured by Pakistani forces. He was returned to India days later and continued his air-force career. The episode became one of the best-known moments of the air campaign, and is presented here as documented rather than dramatised.

Sri Lanka

No. 12 Squadron

Sri Lanka bought refurbished MiG-27s to fly ground attack in its long civil war.

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Around 2000 the Sri Lanka Air Force acquired a small number of remanufactured MiG-27s, forming No. 12 Squadron, and used them for close air support in the later phases of the country’s civil war against the Tamil Tigers. The fleet saw combat through the Eelam War campaigns but was small and suffered several losses to accidents over the years. As with all combat use on this page, the record is presented factually and without endorsement of any side.

Variants

From D to K

The MiG-27 family ran from the basic bomb-truck to a laser-toting precision striker.

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The line began with the baseline MiG-27 (Flogger-D) and grew more capable over time. The MiG-27M added improved attack avionics and countermeasures; the MiG-27K (Flogger-J2) was the most advanced Soviet version, with a laser designator and the ability to deliver TV- and laser-guided weapons — though, lacking cockpit armour, it stayed out of Afghanistan. Earlier aircraft were upgraded to MiG-27D standard, and India fielded its own ML and later upgraded variants.

Comparison

Flogger, Frogfoot, Fitter

The MiG-27 was one of three Soviet strike aircraft that overlapped in service.

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The Soviet Union fielded several ground-attack types at once, and they are easy to blur together. The MiG-27 was the fast, swing-wing tactical striker derived from a fighter. The Sukhoi Su-25 “Frogfoot” was a slow, heavily armoured battlefield attacker built from scratch for the job. The Sukhoi Su-22 “Fitter” was another swing-wing fighter-bomber, widely exported where the MiG-27 was not. Each had its niche; the MiG-27 was the one that came most directly from an air-superiority fighter.

Legacy

The end of the dedicated Flogger

By 2023 every air force had retired the MiG-27; none was replaced in kind.

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The MiG-27 was a Cold-War specialist, and when that era passed the type had no obvious successor. Russia withdrew its aircraft from frontline units as early as 1993; Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan flew their inherited fleets on before retiring them; India and Sri Lanka kept theirs going longest. By the early 2020s the last had been retired or auctioned off. No modern aircraft was built to replace the dedicated single-role Flogger — its work passed to multirole jets that do many things adequately rather than one thing ferociously.

Gallery

The MiG-27 in pictures

A MiG-27 Flogger the Soviet dedicated ground-attack derivative of the MiG-23. — A MiG-27 Flogger — the Soviet dedicated ground-attack derivative of the MiG-23.Photo: johnxxx84 · CC BY-SA 2.0

Indian Air Force MiG-27 Floggers flying over India during Exercise Cope India 2004.Photo: U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Keith Brown · Public domain

A preserved Indian Air Force MiG-27, showing the armoured ducknose and low stance. — A preserved Indian Air Force MiG-27, showing the armoured ‘ducknose’ and low stance.Photo: Mohit S · CC BY 2.0

The MiG-27s down-sloping nose and belly cannon fairing, seen up close. — The MiG-27’s down-sloping nose and belly cannon fairing, seen up close.Photo: Vitaly V. Kuzmin · CC BY-SA 4.0

A MiG-27 on display — the swing-wing strike aircraft in profile.Photo: Rob Schleiffert · CC BY-SA 2.0

A preserved MiG-27 with its variable-geometry wing clearly visible.Photo: Rob Schleiffert · CC BY-SA 2.0

Watch

The MiG-27 in motion

A curated MiG-27 video feature is coming soon. In the meantime, explore the photo gallery and timeline above for a closer look at the Flogger, its ducknose and its swing wing.

Operations

Where the MiG-27 flew

Combat Record

The score that defines it

The MiG-27 was a ground-attack aircraft, so its combat history is measured in strike sorties, not air-to-air kills. It flew close air support in the Soviet-Afghan War, in India’s 1999 Kargil War and in Sri Lanka’s civil war. Precise sortie and loss figures are contested and vary by source; the record below is given factually and without endorsement of any side in these conflicts.

1975Entered Soviet service as a dedicated striker

3Wars flown: Afghanistan, Kargil, Sri Lanka

~4,000 kgOrdnance load per aircraft

Compare the combat record of every military aircraft. Figures as of July 2026.

Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about the MiG-27

Can I fly in a MiG-27?

No — there are no public MiG-27 flights or ride experiences anywhere. Every MiG-27 has been retired from service, and surviving aircraft are museum and gate-guard exhibits. You can, however, fly in several genuine ex-military jets today — see migflug.com/flights-prices/ for the current fighter-jet flights.

What is the difference between the MiG-27 and the MiG-23?

They share the NATO name “Flogger” and a swing wing, but do different jobs. The MiG-23 is an air-superiority fighter with a nose radar. The MiG-27 is a dedicated ground-attack aircraft: no interception radar, an armoured down-sloping “ducknose,” fixed simplified intakes, and a heavy cannon and bomb load for hitting targets on the ground. The MiG-23 has its own separate exhibit on MiGFlug.

Why was the MiG-27’s cannon a problem?

The six-barrel GSh-6-30 fired 30 mm shells at around 5,000 rounds per minute, and the recoil was so violent it could crack fuel tanks, damage avionics, tear gear doors and shake the landing lights loose. Pilots were limited to short bursts, and taming the gun’s effects on the airframe took real effort.

How fast is the MiG-27?

About Mach 1.7 at altitude, roughly 1,885 km/h, and around 1,350 km/h at sea level. That is slower than the MiG-23 fighter it came from, because the MiG-27’s fixed intakes were optimised for low-level strike rather than high-altitude interception.

What was the Indian “Bahadur”?

Bahadur (meaning Valiant) was the Indian name for the MiG-27ML, licence-built by Hindustan Aeronautics. India was the type’s largest export operator, flew it in the 1999 Kargil War, and retired the last examples in December 2019.

Did the MiG-27 fight in Afghanistan?

Yes. Soviet MiG-27s flew close air support late in the Soviet-Afghan War, but the shoulder-fired missile threat forced them to operate from a high minimum altitude of around 5,000 metres, which limited their low-level accuracy.

Is the MiG-27 still in service?

No. Russia retired its MiG-27s from frontline use in 1993, and the last operators — India, Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan among them — had all retired the type by the early 2020s. Survivors are static exhibits.

The part of the collection you can touch