Designed in 1954 as a cheap yet efficient turn fighter, the MiG-Z lacked basic navigation instruments and had low firepower. It is only armed with 2 7.62mm machine guns, meaning it isn’t viable at all for boom & zoom. It’s weak engine based on Chinese design stolen by the communists disallowed it to intercept and energy fight. What it was good at was turn fighting, and it did this very well. In fact, the Hot Rod wasn’t as maneuverable but was still close in that regard. The MiG-Z saw service until the end of the War Against Communism, giving it a service life of almost 62 years. By the end of its life, it was able to mount more destructive weapons and was armed with 6 machine guns by default with some variants armed with DSHKs. When it was first introduced, it outperformed every fighter used by the Alliance of Democracies and it would take 7 years for the Alliance to introduce a single-engine, single-wing jet fighter that could compete with the MiG-Z.