The first Soviet aircraft with variable wing geometry, this fighter-bomber remained in service for a quarter of a century. Being the result of a deep modernization of the legendary Su-7B (in addition to improving the take-off and landing characteristics, the new third-generation strike aircraft received an on-board computer, a laser target illumination system, a TV indicator for guided weapons, etc.), the Su-17 was baptized during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and then fought around the world - from Lebanon, Angola and Peru to Iraq, Yemen and Chad, and the latest cases of its combat use were recorded last year in Libya and Syria. But his "finest hour" was the Afghan war - having entered the battle immediately after the entry of Soviet troops, the "seventeenth" performed the entire range of tasks of fighter-bomber aviation, be it direct fire support, destruction of previously identified targets, "free hunting" or aerial mining, and its reconnaissance modifications were the "eyes" of the 40th Army. A new book by leading aviation historians pays tribute to this honored veteran, who is less known to the general public than the "representative" MiG-29 and Su-27, but his formidable silhouette was the last thing seen by thousands of "spirits" erased into bloody dust by his bomb-storm strikes.