The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 emerged from a Soviet state requirement in 1953 for a lightweight day fighter capable of Mach 2. The first prototype, Ye-1, gave way to the Ye-6, which flew in 1958. Production deliveries to the VVS began in fall 1959. The MiG-21F-13, NATO reporting name "Fishbed-C," was a study in minimalism: a single Tumanskii R-11F-300 engine with afterburner, a nose intake with a hydraulically actuated cone, cropped delta wings with a single fence per side, and a single NR-30 30 mm cannon on the port side; the starboard gun was omitted. It weighed barely 7,100 kg at takeoff and could reach Mach 2.05 at 40,000 feet. Over the next three decades, the design evolved through the radar-equipped MiG-21PF, the blown-flap MiG-21PFM, and finally the MiG-21bis, with a more powerful R-25-300 engine, improved RP-22 radar, and "look-down" capability. More than 11,000 were built in the Soviet Union, with thousands more manufactured under license in China, Czechoslovakia, and India. The MiG-21 fought in Vietnam, the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. It was not a forgiving aircraft—its delta wing bled energy in turns, and its cockpit ergonomics were famously hostile. But it was everywhere, and in the hands of a skilled pilot, it could kill. No other supersonic fighter has been produced in such numbers or served in so many wars.