Yakovlev Yak-41

The Yakovlev Yak-41 (NATO reporting name: Freestyle) is a generation 4.5 STOVL aircraft in the Indian and Russian armed forces. Originally, it didn't enter service in the 1990s because of financial troubles of the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the early 2010s, work was restarted on the Yak-141 in cooperation with the Indian government. The Freestyle is used aboard the Vikramaditya and the Admiral Kuznetsov as well as the Russian and Indian Air Forces.

Variants

 * Yak-41: The two flying prototypes and ground test article.
 * Yak-41M: Proposed production aircraft with large LERXs (leading-edge root extensions) and other improvements, particularly in the avionic suite.
 * Yak-41M2: Production aircraft designed for use by the Indian Navy. 48 aircraft were built
 * Yak-43 (Izdeliye 201): A proposed development of the Yak-41M 'Freehand' equipped with Kuznetsov NK-321 engines.
 * Yak-141: Designation originally applied to a single Yak-41 for disinformation and propaganda purposes when registering records with the FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) and later for promotional purposes by Yakovlev.

Users

 * India
 * Indian Air Force
 * Indian Navy
 * Indian Naval Air Arm
 * Russia
 * Russian Air Force
 * Russian Navy
 * Russian Naval Aviation

Related Aircraft

 * Yakovlev Yak-38
 * Yakovlev Yak-43

Comparable Aircraft

 * Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II