The Foxbat
The Soviet MiG-25 (NATO code name “Foxbat”) was a high-speed interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that entered service in 1970. It had a top speed of Mach 2.83, powerful radar, and the ability to carry up to four air-to-air missiles.
The MiG-25’s capabilities were not discovered until 1976, when Viktor Belenko, a Soviet MiG-25 pilot, defected to Japan. Subsequent analysis revealed a simple yet functional design with vacuum-tube electronics, two massive turbojet engines, and sparing use of advanced materials such as titanium.
The Soviet Union widely exported the MiG-25, a capable interceptor that could outrun any fighter in the air and indeed any military aircraft other than the SR-71 Blackbird.
Loaded with two R-40 missiles (NATO reporting name AA-6 ‘Acrid’), the Foxbat could reach 78,000 feet, but with its full complement of four missiles, it was limited to 68,900 feet. By contrast, the Habu flew at cruise speeds above Mach 3 at over 80,000 feet.
Three Soviet MiG-25 Foxbats trying to intercept SR-71 Blackbird
However, sometimes SR-71 crews were able to spot MiG-25s trying to intercept their Blackbird, as former famed SR-71 pilot Richard Graham explained to BBC several years ago.
“Normally you wouldn’t be aware of one, but it takes a perfect storm to see this.
“I was cruising up to a place called Petropavlosvsk; it’s at the end of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Up there, the Soviet Union had a major nuclear facility and also a nuclear sub pen. And we’d go up and image the southern part of the peninsula.
“On the way up, we’d refueled off the coast of Japan. I’m climbing back up, cruising at Mach 3, and I look down. Probably 200 miles (320km) off the nose I could see—because it was a nice clear day, which you normally don’t get—there were no clouds and they were contrailing.
Three MiG-25s in a clockwise orbit
“It was a perfect storm that I could see them contrailing. They were three MiG-25s in a clockwise orbit. As I got closer, probably 100 miles (160km) out, I’m up at 75,000 feet (23km), they’re down here at about 30,000 feet (9km), I saw them come off the trail and they’re contrailing in a straight line.
“Now they’re in a trail formation about 10 miles (16km) apart. From then on, I saw that the contrail stopped, which I assumed they had lit their afterburners.
“And they’re trying to intercept me.”
Graham concludes;
“All three went right by underneath me. No problem at all.”
Check out Habubrats SR-71, X profile, SR71 Habubrats Instagram, and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Habubrats Facebook page for further Blackbird photos and stories.
Photo by Dmitriy Pichugin via Wikimedia, U.S. Air Force and Linda Sheffield Miller
