The constant fear of being one-upped by the opposition led to the creation of some pretty impressive aircraft during the Cold War.

The Cold War was a political conflict between the US and their western allies in Europe and Asia and the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc countries in Eastern Europe which, luckily for the rest of the world, never became an all-out war.

From the end of the Second World War to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, both the US and the USSR were in a constant state of alert, in case the other should launch a nuclear attack. Both countries remained on a war footing for decades, spending billions of dollars on military aircraft and other weapons.

10MiG-29 Fulcrum

The most famous maker of military aircraft in the Soviet Union was the Russian Aircraft Corporation, also known as Mikoyan or MiG for short. A fictional MiG plane even made it into the 1986 film Top Gun, when Tom Cruise’s character flew upside down over a MiG-28 so that he could take a photo of the Russian pilot.

In reality, all the MiG planes were given odd-numbered designations, like the MiG-29 Fulcrum, a powerful twin-engine jet fighter which was introduced into service in 1982 and which is still in use by the Russian military today.

9TU-16 Badger

Tupolev is another of the major manufacturers of Soviet military aircraft during the Cold War era. Founded in 1927 by engineer Andrei Tupolev, he remained in charge of the company for almost 50 years until his death in 1972.

One of their most successful creations was the Tupolev TU-16, which was given the nickname Badger, a heavy bomber that first flew missions in the 1950s and was still being used by Russian forces until 1993. A Chinese version of the TU-16, the Xian H-6, is still in service today.

8Yak 38 Forger

Founded by Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev in 1934, manufacturer Yakovlev has created several military and civilian aircraft over the years, such as the Yak 38 Forger which was the Soviet military’s first vertical take-off and landing fighter plane for use on aircraft carriers.

Just over 230 Yak 38 Forger models were made between 1971 and 1981, and the plane entered service in 1976 and was retired in 1991. In 2006 Yakovlev and several other Russian aircraft manufacturers, including Mikoyan and Tupolev, were merged to create a new state-owned company called United Aircraft Corporation.

7MiG-31 Foxhound

Mikoyan produced dozens of military aircraft from the Second World War onwards, and one of their biggest success stories was the MiG-31 Foxhound, a supersonic interceptor aircraft and one of the fastest fighter jets ever made, with a top speed of 1800 miles per hour.

The MiG-31 Foxhound made its maiden flight in 1975 but only entered service in 1981. The air forces in Russian and Kazakhstan still use the MiG-31 Foxhound in combat today and it is expected to remain in service until beyond 2030.

6Su-22 Fitter

Another Russian aircraft manufacturer founded to create planes for the Second World War, Sukhoi was named after its lead engineer, Pavel Sukhoi. The Su-22 Fitter was a fighter bomber that was built by the Soviet Union in the 1980s especially for the Polish military.

At that point, Poland was part of the Eastern Bloc, European countries that were ruled by Communist governments and very much under the control of the USSR. The Su-22 Fitter was first flown by the Polish air force in 1984, and there are still around 20 of the planes in service today.

5MiG-21 Fishbed

The MiG-21 Fishbed is one of the most iconic Soviet aircraft ever created and is also the most produced supersonic fighter with 11,500 planes built between 1959 and 1985. It first flew combat missions in 1959 and is still in use today by the Indian, Croatian and Romanian air forces.

As well as playing a critical role in the Cold War, the MiG-21 Fishbed also played a part in the Vietnam War, when it was deployed on behalf of the North Vietnamese forces and was used in the Balkans conflict and by the Assad regime in Syria.

4Yak-141 Freestyle

Another vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, the Yak-141 Freestyle had the potential to be another great Soviet military aircraft – if it hadn’t been for the fact that the Soviet Union ceased to exist while it was still undergoing test flights! The Yak-141 made its maiden flight in 1987, but it was scrapped in 1991 with only 4 planes having been built by Yakovlev.

During its short career, however, the Yak-141 managed to attain 12 Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world records, and two of the surviving aircraft can be seen in museums in Russia.

3Su-25 Frogfoot

The Frogfoot call sign doesn’t suit the high-speed twin-engine Su-25 which was made by Sukhoi at their Tbilisi factory in Georgia from 1978 onwards. Over 1000 of these air force workhorses were built to provide air support for ground forces, and are still being used by the Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian air forces, along with the North Korean military.

The Su-25 Frogfoot first saw service in the Soviet-Afghan War between 1979 and 1989, when the USSR invaded neighboring Afghanistan and were forced to fight a guerrilla war against local insurgents.

2M4 Bison

Myasishchev, an experimental aerospace engineering bureau, was founded in 1951 by Major General Vladimir Myasishchev but was scrapped just 9 years later. They still managed to create some iconic and important Soviet aircraft including the M4 Bison, a long-range bomber which was designed in the 1950s to attack US targets.

The aircraft continued to be a significant part of the Soviet air force until it was retired in 1994. By the end of the Cold War, it was clear that Russia no longer needed to maintain long-range bombers.

1TU-95 Bear

Not all of the old Soviet bombers have found themselves retired, however. The massive four-engine TU-95 Bear made its maiden flight back in 1952 before entering service in 1956 and is still in use by the Russian air force today.

The few hundred TU-95 planes still in circulation are expected to continue in service until at least 2040. Made by Tupolev, the aircraft is the only bomber which still uses propeller-powered engines, the blades of which move faster than the speed of sound.

(Source: https://www.hotcars.com/most-impressive-soviet-aircraft-from-the-cold-war/)