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On December 8, the Russian aircraft corporation...
aircraft after the war, over 15,000 of these fighters were manufactured, making them the most popular jet-fighter model in history. In fact, the Albanian air force scrapped its last MiG-15 in 2005.Before the advent of surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, the MiG-15 and its successors, the MiG-17 Fresco and the MiG-19 Farmer, formed a vital element of Soviet air defense throughout the 1950s.
Large fighter units, which had won a formidable reputation in the course of intensive dogfights, became a highly important deterrent at a time when Soviet nuclear weapons were still in the experimental stage and when Soviet long-range bombers were unable to reach the United States on two-way missions.
U.S. military planners realized that strategic bomber groups would be sitting ducks in Eastern Europe and Soviet air space, and that a hypothetical nuclear strike was highly unlikely to inflict unacceptable damage on the U.S.S.R.