One of the aircraft that has been compared least with the MiG-25 “Foxbat” in terms of imagination, fear, and curiosity is the Western one. At the peak of the Cold War era, the satellite images unveiled an unprecedented machine: giant wings, gargantuan air vents, and an outline that appeared to be a mere product of speed. For the US intelligence officers, it was almost an unreal experience to see it. An indestructible-looking jet that can compete with nothing less than the American arsenal appeared to them. Just by its presence alone, the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle’s development was accelerated. However, the MiG-25 concealed a lot of deficiencies underneath its scary facade. It was made with a very particular mission in mind, and while it was very good in some places, it had obvious restrictions in others.
Foxbat was not made as a fighter to win in air combat or as an aircraft that was able to patrol the sky for several hours. It was born as a remedy for one particular problem: the emergence of American supersonic bombers like B-58 Hustler and XB-70 Valkyrie that could fly at Mach 2 or above, and so the Soviet interceptors that already existed could hardly keep up with them.
The job was quite simple but also quite demanding: rapid takeoff, interception of a high-speed bomber before it could get to the target, destruction of it, and then back to the base. The things that were beyond that, like maneuvering or extended endurance, were considered secondary.
In creating the Foxbat, the Soviets gave top priority to pure power at the expense of finesse. The airframe was mostly made of nickel-steel rather than the more expensive and lighter titanium alloy; thus, it was capable of withstanding the high temperatures that were generated from speeds over Mach 2.8. Although the aircraft was very strong, it was also very heavy, and so its agility was limited when doing tight turns.
Two Tumansky R-15B-300 turbojet engines allowed the plane to achieve in normal operations a speed of Mach 2.83, and if a short emergency made the pilot increase the speed to over Mach 3, then he could be endangering the engine with very severe damage. The high-speed flights were very consumptive, and so the possible range was very much limited; thus, each mission needed to be meticulously planned.
The MiG-25 broke the record; it went higher than 37,500 meters, and the speed it reached was almost unimaginable at that time. However, the accomplishments had a high cost. It was very weak against highly agile fighters because it could only handle 4.5 Gs; at the same time, its RP-25 “Smerch-A” radar had difficulties in detecting targets that were flying low, and this was a flaw that Western strategists were very quick to exploit.
Nevertheless, in the spy function, the airplane was doing well; it could fly faster and higher than the enemy planes. The MiGs of Iraq did manage to shoot down a few Western planes, among them U.S. Navy F/A-18s, during the Iran-Iraq conflict and the Gulf War, but later they got defeated by modern fighters like the F-15.
The day that the Foxbat’s claim of indestructibility was forever uphill, September 6, 1976, when Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko took off in his MiG-25 and fled to Japan. To avoid radar detection, he flew low and landed on what was practically empty fuel, but his act was one of the most spectacular intelligence turnovers of the Cold War. The inspection of the aircraft led to the revelation of the bizarre truth about the MiG-25; it was far from the fantasized indestructible super-fighter that Western analysts had guessed.
The plane was heavy, used outdated vacuum-tube electronics, and its engines could not safely maintain maximum speed. Furthermore, its radar was old-fashioned, and its missiles were useless against the U.S. SR-71 Blackbird, which normally flew higher, faster, and completely out of the Foxbat’s reach. Soviet pilots were given the command not to go beyond Mach 2.5 in normal operations; thus, it is safe to say the reputation of the aircraft was very far from its practical capabilities.
Although the MiG-25 was full of defects, it managed to leave valuable traces. It was tailored to be a fighter that was supposed to negate a very specific threat, and that threat, actually, never became a core part of the American strategy.
The MiG-31 Foxhound, which had better avionics, weaponry, and operational versatility, was designed based on its limitations. In closing, the Foxbat, an emblem of Cold War creative genius, is still there as a machine built for speed and altitude that fascinated the whole world and changed the aerial power.