LaGG-3 aircraft were one of three types of fighters created before the Great Patriotic War to replace the obsolete main fighters of the Soviet Air Force - I-16 and I-153. created in KB Polikarpov. Replacing the fighter fleet was an urgent necessity due to the threat from Hitler's Germany. which wanted to expand its Lehensraum (living space) at the expense of its eastern neighbors. The first LaGG-3s entered fighter aviation regiments in limited numbers in 1941, a few months before the aggressors attacked. LaGG-3 fought along the entire Eastern Front from the Caucasus in the south to the Baltic Sea in the north. Soviet aces won their first victories, flying on LaGG-3. Although more advanced fighters created at Yakovlev Design Bureau soon appeared, the production of LaGG-3 continued until September 1943 and amounted to 6528 aircraft. LaGGs were among the most numerous aircraft of World War II.