The Yakovlev Yak-28 was a swept-wing fighter-bomber powered by two turbojets installed in gondolas underneath the wing. A total of 1,180 were manufactured between during the first half of the 1960s, of which 223 were the Yak-28I, dedicated tactical bomber, illustrated here. The jet was subsonic (it could breach the sound barrier only when underway at high altitude), and had an internal bomb bay, including the capability for deployment of tactical nuclear weapons. While its pilot was seated inside a classic cockpit, the navigator was positioned in front of him in the transparent forward fuselage, and (in the variant Yak-28L, one of which participated in the mission) in front of a radome for the RSBN-2 radar, installed underneath the fuselage to provide a 360-degree coverage. In addition to tactical nuclear weapons, the Yak-28I could be armed with bombs of up to 500kg, or UB-16-57 pods for 57mm S-5K unguided rockets. Sadly, the exact appearance of the two examples from 668th BAP involved in the pursuit of the Storozhevoy remains unknown, but ‘Red 45’ illustrated here is representative of their livery in the early 1970s: this consisted of two layers of clear lacquer, mixed with 10 percent and 5 percent aluminium powder, respectively. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)