Low Level Bombsight, Mark III use in October 1942. Coastal Command had priority on deliveries and only small numbers reached Bomber Command. The first examples arrived in May 1943 and were fit to Douglas Boston bombers of 2 Group. In 1944 the sight was trialled on the Avro Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron RAF, the Dambusters, who carried out a single low-level attack with them in late 1944. Most examples sent to Bomber Command equipped a small number of De Havilland Mosquito aircraft in No. 627 Squadron RAF (who normally operated as pathfinders) and No. 8 Group RAF (Pathfinder Force). The sight remained with Coastal
RAF-977 assembly capacity (only 3000 units a year) at the RAF plant (which still used trolleys, rather than a modern assembly line), its production started at the ErAZ factory in Yerevan, Armenia, 1 May 1966 as ErAZ-762. This was nicknamed "Yeraz" (Armenian for "dream"). By 1973, ErAZ's production reached 6,500 per year; with the innovation of overhead carriage, capacity almost doubled, to 12,000 a year. The 977 was also produced under licence by "Lugansk Avto Remontnyi Zavod" (LARZ). In 1969, an improved ErAZ-762A also appeared. Production of the RAF-977 ceased in 1975, when it was replaced by RAF-2203 Latvia. The 977