Russia’s MiG-25 Foxbat Was Fast (It Could Hit Mach 3.2)

[Bob Riebe]

As I wrote in a previous article on the MiG-25 “Foxbat” interceptor, there are seemingly two truisms of military aviation that seem to contradict each other but nonetheless hold up. The first is that “speed is life,” while the second is that “speed kills.” As I also wrote, the first mantra is highly applicable to the world’s fastest air-breathing aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird, which has never been shot down.
In the case of the Foxbat — the fastest interceptor ever built — the dictums apply in equal measure. The Foxbat is the last enemy aircraft to score an air-to-air kill against a Western warplane (in other words, not counting shootdowns by surface-to-air missiles or triple-A fire).

On the opening night of the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi Air Force Lt. Zuhair Dawoud, employing an R-40RD missile, shot down an F/A-18 Hornet piloted by U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher, thus inflicting the first American KIA of that war.

As for “speed is life,” well, the MiG-25 hasn’t been quite as lucky as the SR-71, but it hasn’t been too far off the mark. Only five MiG-25s have ever been shot down in aerial combat. Let’s now take a look at the stories of those lucky few U.S. Air Force and Israeli Defense Forces Air Force pilots who managed to pull off that impressive feat.

MiG-25 Brief History and Specifications
 
The MiG-25 Foxbat made her maiden flight on March 6, 1964 and entered into operational service with the Soviet air forces in 1970. The Foxbat officially had a max airspeed capability of Mach-3.2, though for all practical purposes (read: safety reasons), that was actually limited to Mach 2.83, which is 1,900 mph.

The plane was built for such speeds because Soviet senior leaders feared a U.S. Air Force warbird that never even made it past the prototype stage, the XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic bomber.

The Foxbat was shrouded in mystery to Westerners until the daring 1976 defection of Lt. Viktor Belenko.

Akin to the F-4 Phantom, which is almost just as fast — “proof that if you put enough thrust behind a brick you can make it fly.” — the Foxbat was known for its large size: a fuselage length of 78 feet 2 inches was matched by a wingspan of 46 feet, a height of 20 feet, an empty weight of 44,092 pounds, a max takeoff weight of 80,954 pound, and the largest engines ever put on a fighter.

To repeat something else I said in my previous MiG-25 piece, “As a quick personal aside, having personally seen the Foxbat’s afterburners up-close-and-personal at the MiG graveyard on Al Asad Airbase, Iraq, I can attest that its engines are truly quite a sight to behold.”

Eagles Kill Foxbat

Just as the Israelis were the first to successfully use the F-16 in air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, so too were they the first to kill a Foxbat in aerial battle. This transpired on Feb. 13, 1981, when an IDF/AF F-15A Eagle shot down a Syrian-piloted MiG-25 over Lebanon after the Foxbat driver and his wingman were lured in by RF-4E decoys deploying chaff and electronic countermeasure pods.

What makes the shootdown even more noteworthy is that it was accomplished with the much-maligned AIM-7F Sparrow semiactive radar-guided missile. As Tom Clancy noted in his nonfiction book Fighter Wing, the Sparrow scored the most air-to-air kills during Operation Desert Storm.
It also had the poorest hit rate, as it lacked the true fire-and-forget capability of either an infrared-guided (heat-seeking) missile such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder, or a true active radar-guided missile (more on this in a moment).

Another IDF/AF Eagle driver repeated the feat on July 29 of that same year.

Fast-forward a decade, and now it was U.S. Eagle pilots’ turn to claim their share of Foxbat-killing glory. On Jan. 19, 1991 — two nights after Dawoud’s shootdown of Speicher — two F-15Cs flown by Air Force Capts. Rick “Kluso” Tollini and Larry “Cherry” Pitts  shot down two MiG-25s.Tollini eloquently described his kill: “‘The explosion was huge, like the Death Star from the Star Wars film.

The Foxbat totally disintegrated, and I was amazed because that had not happened to ‘Cherry’s’ MiG.” Once again, the unloved Sparrow did the trick.

Fighting Falcon/Viper Kills Foxbat

While rivalries between service branches are well known to American civilians, what is not quite as well known are the equally intense but mostly friendly rivalries within services. One such example is that between F-15 and F-16 drivers who vie to determine who flies the best damn fourth-generation fighter in the U.S. Air Force arsenal.
Naturally, the Viper pilots did not want to be outdone by letting their Eagle-driving counterparts have all the fun killing Foxbats.

And so it was that on Dec. 27, 1992, one lucky F-16 pilot, Capt. Gary “Nordo” North, while enforcing the no-fly zone in southern Iraq as part of Operation Southern Watch, caught one of Saddam Hussein’s MiG-25 pilots in flagrant violation.

Long story short, “Nordo” was cleared hot to engage.

In his own words: “I saw three separate detonations, the nose and left wing broke instantly, and the tail section continued into the main body of the jet, and finally one huge fireball.”

In the process, Nordo attained history thrice over: His was the first aerial victory scored by an American F-16, the first kill for the active radar-guided AIM-120 AMRAAM, and to my knowledge, the last air-to-air kill by anybody against the Foxbat.

However, the final scoreboard comes out to Eagles 4, Falcons 1. Sorry, Viper boys ‘n’ girls, the F-15 still holds the title of Top Foxbat Killer.

Christian D. Orr is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch and The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). In his spare time, he enjoys shooting, dining out, cigars, Irish and British pubs, travel, USC Trojans college football, and Washington DC professional sports. If you’d like to pick his brain in-person about his writings, chances are you’ll be able to find him at the Green Turtle Pasadena in Maryland on Friday nights, singing his favorite karaoke tunes.

[ironglow]

  And unfortunately, "speed kills" as well as it saves.  Just as the SR-71 would never do well in a dogfight !

  Any fighter built to such high speed capabilities is VERY costly..and the plane loses it's maneuverability as the speed climbs, if it ever had much maneuverability..

  Most often, keeping your maneuverability, and allowing your missiles to fill the speed gap, still seems to be the best idea, e.g. F-35 strike fighter.

  The Foxbat was just about obsolete when it was introduced, leaving some countries that purchased for "speed",
   with some obsolete aircraft...when they were delivered.

  https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/mig-25-cold-wars-most-misunderstood-jetfighter-175542

[Bob Riebe]

All articles I have read on the F-35 say it is a BVR aircraft , beyond visual range; it is not a good dogfight aircraft.
That is where speed saves lives, you can either out turn the aircraft, turning bleeds off speed and how quickly you regainspeed counts greatly,  or disengage at wil

The F-35 only advantage is in its computer systems but within visual range they are no advantage.

[ironglow]

All articles I have read on the F-35 say it is a BVR aircraft , beyond visual range; it is not a good dogfight aircraft.
That is where speed saves lives, you can either out turn the aircraft, turning bleeds off speed and how quickly you regainspeed counts greatly,  or disengage at wil

The F-35 only advantage is in its computer systems but within visual range they are no advantage.

   ^^^AGREED^^^

[ironglow]

The Russians have a new contender.
The SU-57.
.

   And we may see it soon..if many of the prognosticators are correct.  it was just a few weeks ago, when speaking 
     independently, a couple high ranking generals warned us that China may start a war before 2025.  Others, such as
    Gordon Chang suggest that it may be the "unholy alliance" (Russia, Iran, China and North Korea) that may all strike
     at once.
  It would seem that hovering over our Minuteman, SAC and key strategic bases...could be the last intel gathering
   needed.


     Why 2025?  Well, all are on the way down, socially, economically, demographically and even in their work force
    replacement numbers.
    Then, 2025...  If we happen to pick a strong Trump-like president next, he won't actually take office until January, 2025...

[darkgael]

The advent of such a war, if it could even be called that, would be the end of civilization as we know it. There is no such thing as a limit on effects. An attack on the USA and the response to it is an attack on the world. Radioactive fallout would be everywhere….here and in the countries mentioned as possible perpetrators. Is it possible that they do not realize the ramifications for all of humanity? How many explosions would be deemed necessary in order to ensure what they consider victory? How many would we send in response to that. How many would it take to fill the atmosphere with enough dust to change the weather everywhere? It just boggles the mind.

[darkgael]

About the Foxbat and Mach 3+……yes, it could reach those numbers. As I understand it though, the speed was not sustainable and stressed the powerplant enough that a rebuild was required.

[darkgael]

The advent of such a war, if it could even be called that, would be the end of civilization as we know it. There is no such thing as a limit on effects. An attack on the USA and the response to it is an attack on the world. Radioactive fallout would be everywhere….here and in the countries mentioned as possible perpetrators. Is it possible that they do not realize the ramifications for all of humanity? How many explosions would be deemed necessary in order to ensure what they consider victory? How many would we send in response to that. How many would it take to fill the atmosphere with enough dust to change the weather everywhere? It just boggles the mind.

........,.,...,,........,.

Of course, it would be the Great Reset by War wherein the Globalist get their climate cooling reset AND their depopulation reset all in one, since the Covid reset kinda flopped.
And now that Seymour Hersh has proven that Biden and his Regime has no, nada, zero plausible deniability for blowing up Nord Stream and gloating about it, the Russians realize they are dealing with a mad man willing to suicide his whole country with his comic partner Zelenskyy the Worm assisting. Add to that what we have found out about Ukro bio-labs, especially the criminal Luger Center lab.
Unfortunately, there are far too many Americans accepting Biden walking us into his Great Reset War: too quiet, too compliant, too complicit, too much believing the propaganda.

We don't have a questioning press anymore, or a peace movement exposing Biden's acts of war.
It's all lockstep towards this Great Reset War brought to you by the megalomaniac Biden.
Calamity Biden the blowhard.
.

The big problem with the “great reset war” is that, while it plays out on paper, the reality will be quite different. Such an event will affect everyone everywhere. The assumption in GRW scenarios is that the shadowy controllers will survive and they will have the means at their disposal to assert control and the time to do it. “Resetting” after such an event is on a timeline beyond the life of any individual.

[Dee]

The advent of such a war, if it could even be called that, would be the end of civilization as we know it. There is no such thing as a limit on effects. An attack on the USA and the response to it is an attack on the world. Radioactive fallout would be everywhere….here and in the countries mentioned as possible perpetrators. Is it possible that they do not realize the ramifications for all of humanity? How many explosions would be deemed necessary in order to ensure what they consider victory? How many would we send in response to that. How many would it take to fill the atmosphere with enough dust to change the weather everywhere? It just boggles the mind.

........,.,...,,........,.

Of course, it would be the Great Reset by War wherein the Globalist get their climate cooling reset AND their depopulation reset all in one, since the Covid reset kinda flopped.
And now that Seymour Hersh has proven that Biden and his Regime has no, nada, zero plausible deniability for blowing up Nord Stream and gloating about it, the Russians realize they are dealing with a mad man willing to suicide his whole country with his comic partner Zelenskyy the Worm assisting. Add to that what we have found out about Ukro bio-labs, especially the criminal Luger Center lab.
Unfortunately, there are far too many Americans accepting Biden walking us into his Great Reset War: too quiet, too compliant, too complicit, too much believing the propaganda.

We don't have a questioning press anymore, or a peace movement exposing Biden's acts of war.
It's all lockstep towards this Great Reset War brought to you by the megalomaniac Biden.
Calamity Biden the blowhard.
.

Seymour Hersh has proven nuthin concerning whom blew the Nord Stream pipeline. He has offered his "conspiracy theory" on his own "assumptions" offering "ZERO SOURCES" of his claim.

SEYMOUR HERSH HAS BEEN REPEATEDLY PROVEN TO BE UNRELIABLE AND THE ONLY FOLKS ACCEPTING HIS "CLAIM" OF U.S. ENVOLVEMENT WITH "ZERO PROOF AND ZERO SOURCES" IS POOTUN HIMSELF, AND OF COURSE OTHER "CONSPIRACY THEORY FANS".

https://news.yahoo.com/claim-discredited-journalist-us-secretly-145731495.html

[ironglow]

Many opinions.. I have no handle on it..but I am quite assured that the "elites' plan for the rest of us, is to bring on maximum misery.
  I believe that TM is spot on when he sughgests they have a "hunger games" plan for the majority of the population.

  ..But I do not despair..elites or no..as far as we know, the REAL BOSS has not yet rendered His decision on it .

[darkgael]

The elite think they can survive a GRW.
Maybe in bunkers in South America.

They are wrong. South America will share the dust with the rest of us, if not the craters. Bunkers? What bunkers are those? Speculative bunkers? Where are the boots on the ground going to be? How, I wonder, is this shadowy elite going to exercise control when the infrastructure is gone?

[Dee]

DG......
The elite think they can survive a GRW.
Maybe in bunkers in South America.

Dee........ somebody blew the pipelines.
Who did it? 
Not the people who promised they would do it, had the most to gain, and gloated about blowing it? 
Tell us and I will pass it on to Sey Hersh.
.

The only people that know who blew the pipeline is the ones that blew it, and to date, they're not saying. Everything until then is "speculation".

Seymour Hersh doesn't have any more information than you, or myself. He just has a bigger audience.

There are DOZENS of conspiracy theorists out there that claim to know, and they aĺl have a different spin on it , and their all vying for the same attention, hoping their right, and hoping to get a check.

[Lone Star]

And yet another thread about an interesting technical topic descends into yet another political diatribe.  Kinda sad that actual technical threads no longer seem to be able to avoid jacking.  I miss the old GBO…. 




.

[Bob Riebe]

And yet another thread about an interesting technical topic descends into yet another political diatribe.  Kinda sad that actual technical threads no longer seem to be able to avoid jacking.  I miss the old GBO….

Too much WWWIII paranoia.