Captain Drunk

You're not reading correctly, because Snipe said the F-15 flies at Mach 2.5+, which obviously it dosen't and above 30,000 ft. it would fly much slower, Mach 2.5 being 'clean' only at sea level since a jets speed is 15% faster closer to the surface than higher up. The ceiling for an F-15 is around 65,000 ft. a Mig-25R is just too fast and too high for it to catch up with, so he meant an F-15 is chasing a Foxbat at something like 80,000 ft., at Mach 2.5+ its impossible.

In May 1997, when an IAF Foxbat zoomed low over Islamabad with a deafening noise it was thought that the PAF didn't scramble enough of their F-16s, since they then thought the better of it. For, no plane could reach anywhere near a Foxbat. PAF still believes that the IAF's Foxbat pilot deliberately broke the sound barrier to rub it into PAF minds that they had nothing that could get close to a MiG-25.

The IAF states, "Foxbat pilots have only one regret: they get no combat experience. There are no dogfights, no manoeuvres, for the plane does not encounter an enemy at that speed and height."

Now as for the SR-71, it doesn't have the unrefuelled range to go deep into places like Tomsk or Baikonur that lie beyond 4000 km from international airspace. So the SR-71 cannot go there, only perhaps the Baltic or Bering Seas. Unnecessarily quit arguing like BK, it makes no sense.