what is the mig-19?

[jonatron5]

So my understanding of the mig15, is that it was designed to be a high altitude bomber escort, that over time got utilisesd in an air superiority role.

where as the mig-21 was designed from the ground up to be an interceptor, but became popular with poorer countries as a mainline fighter becuase of its ease of manufacture.

but what I don't understand is what is the design ethos of the mig-19? When I look at it I think "super charged mig-15"  is it just a faster more maneuverable air superiority fighter?

[TLTeo]

These labels are generally very very silly (and for example, your characterisation of both the -15 and -21 is not quite right), but luckily they apply quite well to the specific variant of the Mig-19 we have. The -P was designed to be the Soviet Union's first supersonic all-weather (defined as, it had a search and track radar) interceptor.

 

The Mig-19 in general had another main variant (the -S) which was meant to be a generic front line aviation fighter.

Edited May 20, 2021 by TLTeo

[rossmum]

Almost everything you hear about design role, especially from western sources, is wrong - for example, the MiG-15 was not a bomber escort and the MiG-21 was absolutely not an interceptor, but rather a light frontline fighter - the same role as the later F-16, just with less bells and whistles. In fact, other countries in the Warsaw Pact ended up using the 21 in an interceptor role because they lacked purpose-built interceptors of their own. The Soviets made limited use of it in that role, mainly to plug gaps - for a true interceptor from the same general time period, look at its larger cousin, the Su-9.

 

TLTeo's right - we have the 19P, which was the interceptor version of the 19. The 19S (frontline fighter) lacked all-weather capability, only having a radar-ranged gunsight, not a true search-and-track radar system. Neither had missiles, initially, and when the 19P first got missiles it was in a variant that carried 4 beam-riding radar-guided missiles and no guns (19PM). The 19P received the R-3S that it has in DCS in the mid-to-late 60s.

Edited May 21, 2021 by rossmum

[some1]

MiG-19 was the next evolutionary step after MiG-17, which was an evolution of MiG-15. It was meant to perform the same tasks, as a daytime fighter and a radar-equipped all-weather interceptor, serving both in the Air Force and Air Defence. But with bigger range, and better performance (top speed, climb, acceleration), than the older MiGs.