Prototype: In the early 1960s, increasingly effective air defense systems and the demand for multi-role aircraft required the development of new concepts. High-speed and low-altitude flight capabilities for landing and precision drop munitions should be combined in one aircraft whenever possible. Designers around the world have found a solution to combine these parameters in a variable wing geometry.
In the mid-1960s, the Soviet front-line aviation was looking for a successor to the already obsolete Il-28 and Yak-28 Yakovlev, and its development was entrusted to the Sukhoi OKB. The requirements were extremely high, ranging from supersonic speed (even at low altitudes) to day and night use in all weather conditions to engagement of stationary and moving targets and additional aerial reconnaissance capability. The possibility of operation on ground airfields with a limited runway length was also specified. This latter requirement led to the development of the T-6-1 with additional lift engines to shorten the take-off distance. The next development, the T-6-2I, had rotary wings instead of lift engines and was the final prototype of the Su-24. The Su-24 was developed on the basis of the first integrated avionics in the Soviet Union, consisting of a bomb sight, a weapons control computer and a computer navigation complex. This type was the first Soviet fighter with the revolutionary Zirka K-36D 0-0 ejection seat. The first flight of the T6-2I prototype took place on January 17, 1970 with Volodymyr S. Ilyushin on board. Since the tests were successful, the first machine of the Su-24 series was completed in December 1971 at the Chkalov plant in Novosibirsk. It had a modified rear end compared to the prototype and optimized air intakes. In 1973, the first task force of the Air Force, and in 1975, the Navy, was equipped with a machine that was significantly more powerful than its predecessors, but also more complex. A total of about 1,200 Su 24s were produced.
The Su-24 proved to be one of the most powerful fighters with a good range, variable armament (8000 kg spread over eight docking points) to nuclear weapons, advanced radio-electronic protection (Eloka) and early warning systems.
