It was employed in combat for the first time during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis and later proved to be effective against the more advanced supersonic fighters of the United States during the Vietnam War. Prior to the official NATO designation, it was known by the United States Air Force as Type 38.
The first variant, called just "MiG-17" (NATO code "Fresco-A") was the basic fighter version powered by the Klimov VK-1 engine which delivered a power of 26.48kN (5952lb) of thrust, with some versions retrofitted later with the improved Klimov VK-1A which yielded 26.87kN (6041lb) of power.
It was armed with a single 37mm N-37D cannon, two 23mm NR-23 cannons and could carry up to 250kg of bombs or external fuel depots, which was the most usual underwing addition.
The basic variant, was used, among others, by the next European users:
- Albania: Just before the Soviet-Albanian Split of 1955, the Albanian People's Army Air Force received some MiG-17s. Their operational use and/or fate is unknown and, as we couldn't find graphical evidence, the drawing should be taken as speculative.
- East Germany: The first fighters of the Air Forces of the National People's Army, founded in 1956, were MiG-17s and MiG-17Fs which served together until mid-1960s when they were replaced by the more advanced MiG-19 and MiG-21.
- USSR: The main user of the MiG-17. More than 5467 exemplar built in many Soviet factories from 1952 until 1955. They were the main Soviet fighter until 1955 when they were gradually replaced by the more advanced variant MiG-17F.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-17
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Forces_of_the_National_People%27s_Army
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_Air_Force
4. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/49437/
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