Kiev Forger VTOL

The Yakovlev Yak-38 was the Soviet Naval Aviation's only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft, in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It was developed specifically for, and served almost exclusively on, the Kiev-class aircraft carriers.

The majority of Yak-36M initial production deliveries were to the 279 OKShAP (Otdelny Korabelny Shturmovoy Aviatsionny Polk, Independent Shipboard Attack Air Regiment), initially based at Saki, the AV-MF's training centre in Crimea.

In July 1979, Minsk arrived in the Sea of Japan, where the vessel was home-ported at Strelok Bay, the Yak-38 component of its air wing thereafter being provided by the 311 OKShAP subordinate to the Pacific Fleet.

In September 1982, Novorossiysk – the third Kiev-class carrier – was commissioned. By now the V/STOL technique had been well practised, and the resulting increase in the Yak-38's overall performance and capability was exploited during the passage of Novorossiysk from Severomorsk to join the Pacific Fleet. A pair of armed Yak-38s operating from Minsk intercepted aircraft from the U.S. carrier Enterprise over the Arabian Sea on 16 December 1982. This event marked the first time Soviet VTOL aircraft intercepted American aircraft while armed with missiles.

In a maritime context, the Yak-38 was not limited to the decks of Kiev. In September 1983, AV-MF pilots operated from the civilian Ro-Ro vessel Agostinho Neto, and NII-VVS pilots conducted further tests from another Ro-Ro vessel, Nikolai Cherkasov. In both cases, use was made of a heat-resistant landing platform; further land-based trials tested the practicality of dispersed landing platforms, in a similar concept to the British Royal Air Force's Harrier operations in West Germany.