Yak-9B Cluster Bomber is a Soviet Air unit in Steel Division II.
Background[]
The Yak-9 represented further development of the robust and successful Yakovlev Yak-7B fighter, a production version of the lightened Yak-7DI, taking full advantage of the combat experience with its predecessor. Greater availability of duralumin allowed for lighter construction which in turn permitted a number of modifications to the basic design. Yak-9 variants used two different wings, five different engines, six different fuel tank configurations and seven different armament setups.
The Yak-9B was a fighter-bomber version of the Yak-9D (factory designation Yak-9L) with four vertical tube bomb bays (in a 2×2 arrangement) aft of the cockpit with capacity for up to 4 × 100 kg (220 lb) FAB-100 bombs or 4 PTAB cassettes with 32 × 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) bomblets each, although normally only 200 kg (440 lb) of weapons were carried in the front bomb bays.
The Yak-9B was put into limited production but did not prove successful enough to be put into wide-scale production. Difficulties in loading bombs, poor handling with a full bomb and fuel load and lack of bombsight or other aiming equipment limited its combat usefulness.