Sukhoi Su-17
attack aircraft family by Sukhoi
The Sukhoi Su-17 (Russian: Су-17; NATO reporting name: Fitter) is a variable-sweep wing fighter-bomber developed for the Soviet military. Developed from the Sukhoi Su-7, the Su-17 was the first variable-sweep wing aircraft to enter Soviet service and featured updated avionics. The aircraft also has variants which were designed for export such as the Sukhoi Su-22 and the less popular Su-20.
It was produced from 1967 to 1990. The Su-17/20/22 series had a long career and has been operated by many air forces, including those of the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact, countries in the Arab world, Angola and Peru.
Although the Su-17 was capable of carrying nuclear weapons, it was used in roles ranging from close-air support to ground attack.
Development
Shortly after the Su-7 fighter-bomber was put into service, the Sukhoi Design Bureau was ordered to develop a modernisation program. The program would be aimed primarily at updating on-board avionics and takeoff/landing characteristics. The concept of variable-geometry wings, something gaining wider attention at that time, was adopted. The program was to be led by Sukhoi's head designer, Nikolay Zyrin.
“Sukhoi Su-17” enters the record as attack aircraft family by Sukhoi. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sukhoi, Su-17 and attack can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q183146. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1967 and 1990.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sukhoi Su-17” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.