canoe

I somewhat doubt the Amercians would spend all the money it cost to fly an SR-71 mission to take aerial pics of a fighter plane they were already aware of sitting on an airfield.

Not to mention the fact the Foxbat never turned out to be the threat the Americans thought it was. Most of the American concern was over the mistaken belief the Foxbat could maintain sustained flight at mach 3 and was agile like a figher, which it wasn't.

The Foxbat was a feat of engineering and quite good as a short range high speed interceptor against supersonic bombers but it was never a good air to air fighter nore an ideal recon platform. It was what it was designed to be, nothing more, nothing less.

HistoricalDavid

Yes, because expending operational warshot missiles - large ones at that, considering the SR-71 requires high-altitude performance in its adversaries - 'just for the heck of it' is just what military professionals like to do.

At least 3,000 missiles were fired at the thing.

By virtue of flying at one fifteenth or lower the altitude of a satellite, and using proper film instead of primitive early digital, an SR-71 could snap far, far more detailed pictures than just satellites at the time.

XB-70 - cancelled by 1969. T-4 - cancelled by 1976.

Also XB-70 = embarrassingly superior aircraft.

Refer earlier.

The Foxbat is not a frightening aircraft by any stretch of the imagination.

Archer

Only a handful of chosen elite' in the IAF flew this plane on account of its capabilities and the classified nature of its mission. The latter dictated that only senior personnel who had already done their tenure on other aircraft, and were on the way up the ranks, would command the unit. They didnt want to risk the pilots and maint crew spreading amongst other squadrons- in a tight knit fraternity like the IAF, where everyone knows everyone else, information has a way of getting disseminated and they couldnt risk that with the MiG. I have heard of a few deep missions over Pak territory snooping on things the Paks would have been very displeased about.

Personally, I feel the IAF should have retained these bird, but am told they were horrendously expensive to maintain and fly.

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Samudra

I hope they tug one bird to HAL Museum in Bangalore. Its a very small museum but they definitely got space for a MiG - 25.

Archer

Wasnt Speicher lost to a MiG-25? To play the "other side", I think the MiGs in western hands could have done a lot better than they did in Arab ones.
I think the ultimate fighter variant of the 25 series, the MiG-31 can still pose a credible threat to almost all non stealth fighters out there- its got good speed, endurance and an excellent long range weapons system.

highsea

Yes he was. He was chasing the MiG, which easily outran his Hornet. He broke off and was returning to base, and the MiG turned around and caught him from behind. I have never heard any explanation as to why he wasn't warned by AWACS controllers that the MiG was coming back for him.

Speicher ejected, and investigators concluded that he was likely to have survived, but with injuries (burns on exposed skin). The Iraqis cut him out of his flight suit, and the remains of the suit and some wreckage was recovered later.

http://www.nationalalliance.org/gulf/intel.htm

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The_Burning_Kid

I'm guessing the poor guys dead then?

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highsea

He's officially listed as missing-captured.

Operator

Not that this is any way is concrete fact but it's a good read. I didn't read back though all the pages so hopefully it hasn't been posted already.

http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/mig25.html

Blackjack

Well, TU-95's have pretty good range. It doesn't take much more than local flight activity from SA bases in Anadyr' or Tiksi to hit Alaska. Kinda worth spying on, considering the strategic importance of Alaska, especially during the cold war.

And why not more talk of the Mig-31? It's still one of the fastest (if not THE fastest) interceptor the Russians have. Mach 2.83

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GGTharos

IIRC he was not chasing anything - what happened wasthat during a night mission, he was part of a strike package which potted the 25's afterburners. AWACS was unable to see the 25 for whatever reason and did not permit the hornets to engage, at which point the 25 turned aorund and launched what is presumed to be an R-40T. The package was -in-bound, not outbound.
I'm sure there are many versions of this story though.
The hornets could've likely him if they had been cleared to engage.

IIRC no one ever saw the ejection either - just a big fireball in the sky.

GGTharos

MiG-31 isn't meant to engage fighters though ... look at its payload and capabilities. This thing is meant to get to enemy bombers penetrating friendly airspace, or getting to B-52's before they can launch ALCMs.

While they'd be a credible thread, they'd simply be unlikely to have to deal with fighters altogether.

highsea

If I remember correctly, the version I cited was from the Iraqi pilot from a postwar interview.

So who really knows. I haven't seen the com transcripts.