The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19P was a version equipped with an RP-1 Izumrud radar placed inside a radome in the nose. It's armed with two 23 mm NR-23, late variants being armed with a 30 mm NR-30 cannons placed at the root of the wings.
The wings were equipped with hardpoints that could carry unguided rockets, one under each wing. It also had an elongated tailfin fillet, all-moving tailplane and a third airbrake added behind the central fin.
It was produced from 1956 until 1958, though some sources claim its production started one year earlier, in 1955.
The prototype, the Mikoyan-Gurevich SM7/1, flew for the first time on 28th August 1954 and a total of 433 machines were manufactured at Gorky's Aircraft Factory No.21 with many of them being exported to various Warsaw Pact countries and allies.
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19PM was another variant of the "P" with its cannons completely removed and armed only with four Kaliningrad K-5M beam-riding air-to-air missiles. A total of 369 machines were manufactured at Gorky's Aircraft Factory between 1956 and 1960.
The type entered service with the VVS (Soviet Air Force) and remained in active service together with the older MiG-17 as it never fully replaced it given to its low reliability. They were involved in many interceptions over East Germany and Warsaw Pact airspace. In fact, the first documented encounter with a Lockheed U-2 took place in autumn 1957. The MiG-19P pilot, reported seeing the aircraft but couldn't make up the 3.000 m (9.800 ft) difference in altitude. Later, when Francis Gary Powers' U-2 was shot down in 1960 one pursuing MiG-19P was also hit by a salvo of S-75 Dvina ground-to-air missiles, killing the pilot, Sergei Safronov in a friendly fire incident.
They served as the vanguard of the VVS's fighter force from the mid 1950s until early 1960s when they were progressively replaced by the much better MiG-21. Many of them were still active in 1968 when they took part in Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-19#Variants
2. https://www.valka.cz/Mikojan-Gurevic-MiG-19P-kod-NATO-Farmer-B-t12471
3. https://www.valka.cz/Mikojan-Gurevic-MiG-19PM-kod-NATO-Farmer-D-t766
4. Midland Publishing - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19. The Soviet Union's First Production Supersonic Fighter
5. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
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