Sukhoi Su-19

The  'Suchoi Su-19'  (🇷🇺, NATO Codename:  Fencer , to German  fencer ) was the initial designation of the Su-24 through the West.

History
In early 1974, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Thomas Moorer made a statement that an aircraft had appeared in the Soviet Union in the General Dynamics F-111 class held by NATO. ] Experts had been classified as Su-19 and the NATO code name "Fencer" received. It later turned out that Sukhoi did not build a Su-19 aircraft and that the aircraft designated by NATO as Su-19 was Su-24.

The drawings that the Pentagon released on the Su-19 showed a plane that looked less like the Su-24, but more like the F-111. The first pictures showed, so to speak, the Su-19 as F-111 with air intakes like the MiG-25. In later pictures of the Su-19 was again to see, so to speak, an F-111 with air intakes, this time a little too small but in the correct form of the Su-24 were shown. This time, however, air brakes were falsely shown on the sides of the fuselage backside (comparable to the air brakes of Su-17). In all images of the Pentagon, the weapon suspensions were missing on the moving part of the swinging wings.

When the official name Su-24 became known, the name Su-19 was no longer used by the West and the NATO code name "Fencer" was used for the Su-24.

Weblinks

 * Global Securiy org. Su-19