Originally Posted by Captain Drunk

Never heard of a Tomcat - Foxbat showdown. On the contrary, it were Libyan Foxbats that chased F-14s back to the carrier in 1989. Then, in 1991, as wave after wave of F-14s and F-15s entered Iraqi airspace, escorted by A-6 and A-7 fighters, one Iraqi Foxbat took to the air, shot down an F-18, shot a missile at an A-6 and whizzed past another. Foxbats also saved the MiG-29s, which Saddam Hussein sent to Iran for safekeeping before the war broke out. The MiG-29s flew to safety while a few Foxbats engaged USAF's F-15s which tried to intercept the fleeing planes. The F-15s shot more than half a dozen missiles at the Foxbats, but the latter outflew all of them. These were still the Mach 2.83 Foxbats and not the Recee Mig-25s.

Nothing ever happened to that Mig-25 over Israel, it landed safely in Egypt. If its engines had flamed out, that 35-tonne plane would have fallen into the Dead Sea like a rock.