MiG (Red Alert 1)

The MiG was the primary attack aircraft used by the Soviet Union and its vassal states during GWWII. It was a swept wing fighter-bomber that mounted numerous missiles, and usually fired them all in a swarm. Due to external carriage of a number of missiles, it could load missiles and fire them very quickly. They were built and reloaded at Air Strips.

MiGs were equipped with at least 3 undercarriage mounted missiles, which were optimized for use against armored targets, doing little damage against infantry. Against armored targets, including ships, these missiles did significant damage. Furthermore, Migs reloaded extremely quickly and flew to and from their targets with equal speed, allowing savvy commanders to make strike after strike against an opponent. Furthermore, the Mig could also be used against enemy attack columns. As the Soviets did not have an effective anti-tank mine, this was the next best solution.

Unfortunately, the price paid for such remarkable versatility was in defense - other than speed, MiGs had no defense, being poorly armored, and often a snack for the ZSU-23 cannons mounted in the allied AA guns. However, this was mitigated somewhat by the fact that these cannons had short range. However, any concentrated anti-aircraft defense could deny an area to the Migs. They were latter superceded by F-18 Super Hornets, F-22 Raptors and YF-23 Black Widows in later decades of the 20th Century.