Earlier/better soviet cold war tech

There ar plenty of such "earlier/better" topics mostly concerning WW2 and mostly concerning the germans, japanese, british etc. So how about a similar topic for USSR cold war tech?

I'm imagining things like Vietnam war fought with better MiG-21s (earlier use of four harpoint wing and gun for P variants) and Ye-152s (called MiG-23 in my ATL), Yom Kippur war fought with MiG-25 and MiG-27 variants (OTL MiG-23), uparmoured T-55/62 and even early T-64s, and Bekaa fought with Su-24, MiG-27MLD, MiG-25PD as well as early Su-27 and MiG-29s, late model T-72 and T-64, and other such scenarios.

Maybe all this can be started by a better USSR WW2 performance, less casualties, less rebuilding after the war, hence more resources to the MIC etc. We know how things went in OTL, let's not get in arguing that alternatehistory is not possible when it comes to USSR, let's just make this happen and explore ramifications.
 
No need to be less belligerent, they can just send the KGB to steal science. :cool:

Like how the North American A3J/A-5 'inspired' the E-155 that became the MiG 25?
e155p5.jpg

a5a-2.jpg
 
Butterfly away Stalin's purges of scientists.
Good start, maybe this way the germans are met by hordes of I-17 and I-180, Pe-8s, tanks with radios, better led and equipped troops etc. (if Stalin wants to purge any "dangerous elements" just have him purge the top brass only, without going all the way down to the backbone of military and scientific community)

In the postwar years he also should not do things like close the Sukhoi OKB (1949-1953, reemerged after Stalin's death), this way Sukhoi keep working on his designs, get earlier experience with intakes etc and a better/earlier Su-7 and Su-9 would result (in OTL he initially fumbled about with intake designs before adopting the same solution as Mikoyan).

But yeah i particularily like to ponder of the impact of Ye-152 (MiG-23) used in Vietnam, the thing is much faster (M2.65 i think), carries a longer ranged radar and two large missiles (R-40) compared to the MiG-21, so to me it seems perfectly suited for boom and zoom intercepts against the americans. Not a dogfighter of course, if it comes to that the pilot needs to go full trottle and get the hell outta there, and leave such close combat to the smaller, nimbler MiG-21.

Speaking of which i was pondering if the development of the R-21F-300 engine used in Ye-8 can continue and the R-21 engine would be used in the third generation MiG-21s (i call it MiG-21M), which would appear about 1966. With the extra power export versions with 4 missiles and internal gun would be formidable dogfight opponents during the later stages of the Vietnam war, war of attrition and Yom Kippur war in ME etc. Another scenario is better soviet tech and better training provided plus crucial things like hardened aircarft shelters for EAF and SyAF completely ruining the israeli plans (not to mention their military) during the six day war.
 
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