Yak-38.

This is coolbert:

Before there was Flanker-D there was Forger!

NOW GONE! Perhaps from the perspective of Russian naval aviation a bad thing!

"The Yakovlev Yak-38  . . . NATO reporting name: 'Forger' was the Soviet Naval Aviation's only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft, in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It was developed specifically for, and served almost exclusively, on the Kiev-class aircraft carriers."

Forger a vertical take-off and landing [VTOL] warplane greatly resembling the British Harrier.

From the Internet web site Defense of the Realm that comparison between the British Sea Harrier and the Forger made. Worth reading. "Sea Harrier FRS.1 vs. Yak-38 ‘Forger’"

"While both aircraft have an uncanny resemblance to one another they are in fact two entirely different aircraft."

At least FROM MY PERSPECTIVE Sea Harrier and Forger basically one and the same warplane!

Harrier as originally envisioned too a land-based aircraft, able for VTOL operations out of unimproved, expedient and improvised air-fields.

FLOGGER WE NEED YOU!

coolbert.