MiG-31: Intercepting the SR-71

today's video is brought to you by audible start listening with a 30-day audible trial and access to audible originals absolutely free visit audible.com mega or text mega to 500-500 more on them in a bit as well as an audiobook recommendation from me hello everybody welcome back to another episode of mega projects there is often a debate in the comments on mega projects i cover a plane and people are like simon my man planes are not mega projects but then every time i make a video about a mig or an enormous plane or some impressive plane there are there are loads of views so uh i i keep making them this one is about another soviet aircraft another mig it's uh it's an interesting story so let's jump in [Music] the cold war inspired a battle for supremacy in the skies which spawned countless american and soviet aircraft we've already discussed a few of them on this channel as i just said in the intro but today we're here to talk about the michigan mig-31 foxhound am i saying that right look see i do check the pronunciations sometimes when i care when it's the actual subject of the video woo mikoyan maybe if i just say raj mikoya makes 31 fox sound i shouldn't do that let's not do that again see not bad not bad whistle boy though less well-known than the mig-29 the 31 was similarly important to the battle for dominance of the skies during the cold war while the 29 was defined by its rivalry with the f-16 the 31 was a response to the american sr-71 blackbird today we'll dive into what made this plane so special and i know this video is already going to be popular because i probably put sr-71 in the title and people click that while the mig-31 was officially introduced into the soviet air forces in 1981 the origins of the plane began well over a decade earlier the cold war was of course a war without direct conflict between the soviets and the americans but this didn't mean that their aircrafts didn't compete directly with one another the american assassin 71 blackbird was introduced to the world in january of 1966 and it took the abilities of aircrafts to a higher level literally the blackbird was a strategic reconnaissance aircraft with the ability to fly at speeds over mach 3 and at an altitude of 88 000 feet which is just shy of 27 000 meters together with the rest of the american fleet these aircrafts posed a major threat to the soviet union as they had no interceptors capable of protecting their airspace from infiltration at such a high altitude and surface-to-air missiles were not fast enough to pose a real threat it just it's a mind-blowing plane that sr71 i think i mentioned in a previous video that i've seen one in a museum one it was a lot bigger than i expected but two it's just insane that that thing flew fast enough to escape a missile back to it this led to the introduction of the mig-25 fox bat which first flew in 1964 but wasn't introduced into the soviet air force until 1970. the 25 had a maximum speed of mach 3.2 although this speed was impossible to reach without sustaining long-term damage to the engine or airframe but it could safely reach speeds of mach 2.83 making it the fastest ever manned soviet aircraft when the americans saw photos of the fox bat they were concerned with its large wings believing that they signified high maneuverability however the 25 actually struggled with maneuverability at high speeds as the large wings were primarily included to support the excessive weight of the aircraft which came in at over 38 000 kilograms about 84 000 pounds when fully fueled and equipped it was also difficult to fly at low altitudes and lacked much of the technological refinement that was required to pose a real threat to the sr-71 especially in regards to its air missile capabilities none of this is to say that the 25 wasn't a capable aircraft of course it was after all it had the fastest maximum speed of any in-serviced manned aircraft in the skies but clearly it did need to be a bit improved upon the soviets got back to work on a new long-range interceptor that combined the speed and altitude of the 25 with a high-tech cockpit capable of controlling soviet airspace this meant that though it was inspired by the 25 the 31 was designed to replace the tu128 a massive 30 meter long interceptor whose only successful combat mission was against a reconnaissance balloon as such the aircraft was designed to achieve four key responsibilities first intercept cruise missiles and their launch aircraft by reaching combat range in the lowest possible time after takeoff second detect and destroy low-flying cruise missiles uavs and helicopters third the long-range escort of strategic bombers and finally fourth provide strategic air defense in areas not covered by ground-based air defense systems these goals required extreme improvements in the radar and weapon systems as well as the ability to communicate effectively within units all while maintaining a comparable speed to the 25. the united states learned of the soviet development of a new interceptor in 1976 when a soviet air defense forces pilot lieutenant victor balenko defected to japan in his mig-25p he landed at hakutate airport in hokkaido japan and though he damaged his landing gear by overshooting the runway his plane represented the state-of-the-art technology in russian aircrafts at the time the japanese invited the us air force to dismantle and analyze the 25 and 67 days later it was returned to the soviet union in pieces while meeting with the us air force balenko informed them of development of the upcoming super fox bat just weeks after the lenko's defection approached type of the 31 called the ye155 mp took flight for the first time on september 16 1976. in 1979 the 31 was approved for serial production and on may 6 1981 it was officially introduced into the soviet air force [Music] from the outside the new plane bore a striking resemblance to its predecessor and their dimensions tell a similar tale while the mig-31 foxhound stood at 6.45 meters tall and 22.6 meters long the 25 was 6.1 meters tall and 23.8 meters long their wings were almost identical with the total wing area separated by just 0.2 square meters at 61.6 square meters for the 31 and 61.4 square meters for the 25 and with wingspans of 13.456 metres for the 31 and 14.01 metres for the 25. now while the 25 was considered a heavy aircraft when it was introduced the 31 was even heavier coming in at a gross weight of 41 000 kilograms which is 4 000 kilograms more than its predecessor the maximum speeds are essentially identical at high altitudes that is as long as we're considering the maximum speed at which the plane's engines and airframe aren't at risk with each one clocking in at 3 000 kilometers an hour or mach 2.83 at a height of 70 000 feet however at low altitude the 31 vastly outperforms the 25 with the former coming in at 1 500 kilometers an hour or mach 1.21 and the latter at 1 100 placing it safely in subsonic territory while these figures place both of these aircrafts among the fastest ever manufactured they're well below the sr-71 which could reach speeds of 3540 kilometers an hour or max 3.32 at 80 000 feet one area however where the 31 outperforms both the 25 and the sr-71 is in rate of climb as the 31 can ascend at 288 meters a second with the 25 reaching 208 meters a second and the sr-71 is a relatively slow 60 meters a second the 31 also has the highest g limit maxing out at 5 g's while the 25 maxes out at 4.5 in the sr-71 at omega-3 g's come on guys although really this is to be expected as fighter planes need to perform high g-force maneuvers compared to spy planes it's not really comparable another key improvement for the 31 over the 25 was in flight range ranges can vary immensely depending on speed and elevation but at optimally fuel efficient speeds the 31 has a ferry range of 3 000 kilometers compared to 2 575 kilometers for the 25. the foxhound also has the ability to refuel mid-flight via russian air tankers extending the range by the 2000 kilometers as for its power plant the 31 uses two solaviev d30f6 afterburning turbofan engines each one generating 93 kilonewtons of thrust when dry and 152 kilonewtons with afterburners now those numbers might not seem too overwhelming compared to something like the sr-71 and the 25 but the areas where the 31 really excels are in the avionics radar and its weapon systems the weapons control system is built around a phased array radar making the 31 the first fighter plane to include such a system the radar tracking and weapon systems extend 70 degrees to the right and left of the plane 70 degrees upwards and 60 degrees downwards allowing it to fire at enemy aircrafts well above and below it the radar extended 200 kilometers forward and along the front of this range had extended to a width of 225 kilometers upon its introduction in 1981 the 31 could simultaneously track up to 10 targets and attack 4 while the modern system allows tracking of 24 targets and attacking of 6. not only could a single 31 track all of these targets but they automatically exchanged radar generated data with each other within 200 kilometers and could even direct fighter jets with less sophisticated avionics to targets acquired by their radar systems this meant that four mig-31s could control an area of airspace up to a thousand kilometers wide the weapon systems included three classes of air-to-air missiles four r-33e long-range missiles for large targets like the sr-71 four r-60 mk short-range light missiles and two r-40rds which are the largest long-range air-to-air missiles ever produced as of 2013 the 31 was one of two aircrafts in the world capable of firing long-range air-to-air missiles it also included a six-barrel 23-millimeter rotary cannon carrying 260 rounds while these are the standard armaments 31s are also capable of carrying air-to-surface missiles or bombs now all of this stuff this super advanced and complex system it meant there was a second pilot on board which is why unlike the 25 the 31 includes two cockpits now just before we continue with today's video i want to thank today's sponsor who made it possible audible now you guys have probably heard of audible you're on the internet so pretty sure you have they have the largest selection of audiobooks in the world bar none i've recently been listening to the book rebel ideas by matthew cite is a great listen which i found because i'd previously listened to his earlier book black box thinking which is also brilliant both of those are great and you can get one of them absolutely for free if you click the link below and sign up for audible if you start with audible using that link below you'll get a 30-day trial and use that trial to get one audio book for free it doesn't have to be my recommendation though there is a huge range of audio books on the platform so you're sure to find something you love but it's not just audiobooks you also get access to audible originals which are shorter spoken word pieces around an ad to two hours long and they're only available on audible plus exchange an audiobook if you don't like it keep your audiobooks forever listen on any device audible's just the best go get it now visit audible.com forward slash mega or text mega to 500 500 and let's get back to it [Music] the mix 31 entered serial production in 1979 and stayed in production all the way until 1994 with a total of 519 31s produced in that span 349 of those were baseline models while the other 170 of them were made in 15 different variations the overwhelming majority were flown by soviet air forces then the russian air force though the kazakhstan air force inherited 50 of them when the soviet union dissolved in 2007 the syrian air force actually ordered eight of these 31 from russia and though the russian government has denied ever fulfilling this order the turkish government claims that six were delivered there in 2015. throughout its time in operation a-31 has never actually fired a missile at an sr-71 but it's not to say that they weren't an effective deterrent of the blackbird spy plane reports from both american and soviet pilots tell of at least two intense confrontations in 1986. the first comes from a book by aviation expert paul crickmore titled lockheed blackbird beyond the secret missions it includes an anecdote told by foxhound pilot captain mikhail miyagi which shed some light on a confrontation with the sr-71 on january the 31st 1986. mayheki says the scheme for intercepting the sr-71 was computed down to the last second and the migs had to launch exactly 16 minutes after the initial alert they alerted us for an intercept at 11 o'clock they sounded the alarm with a shrill bell and then confirmed it with a loudspeaker the appearance of an sr-71 was always accompanied by nervousness everyone began to talk in frenzy voices to scurry about and react to the situation with excessive emotion miyagi's foxhound locked onto the blackbird from a distance of about 120 kilometers at an altitude of 52 000 feet miyagi claimed that he could see the black bird with his naked eye after ascending another 13 000 feet to meet its elevation he continues had the spy plane violated soviet airspace a live missile launch would have been carried out there was practically no chance the aircraft could avoid an r-33 missile another confrontation occurred on june 3rd 1986 as 631s intercepted a single sr-71 over the barren sea but again no missiles were fired according to all parties involved this was the final time that an sr-71 flew a reconnaissance mission over the soviet union and a few years later the blackbird was retired while many air 71 pilots have claimed that they never felt threatened by the 31 it seems clear that the soviet interceptor had at least achieved its goal of deterring the spy planes from soviet airspace after the blackbird's retirement the united states carried out most of its reconnaissance via satellite those are a little bit higher up there are about 120 mig-31s in service within the russian air force today though the tales of their exploits are not quite as exciting as they were during the cold war on april 26 2017 one was shot down over a proving ground in southeast russia during a training exercise leaked documents showed that the fox sound was shot down by an r-33 missile fired by another russian 31 due to radar and fire control malfunctions thankfully all pilots involved were able to eject safely but it means that throughout its operational history the 31 was able to shoot down more fellow 31s than sr-71s the plane that it was built to defeat like any plane that has been around for decades the foxhound has been subject to a handful of variations some of these variations were applied to the new production batches but the majority have been upgrades to pre-existing aircrafts the most common variants include the zero1dz bbm and beersome variants these later variants are considered multi-role variations as they have anti-radar anti-ship and air-to-surface missiles a project to upgrade the russian fleet to the mig-31 bm standard began in 2010 and is expected to be completed sometime this year the secretive nature of the russian military makes it unclear just how many upgraded versions will be built but estimates range from 50 to 130. the 31 bm includes upgraded avionics new multimode radar hands-on throttle and stick hotes controls lcd multi-function displays a more powerful computer system and digital data links the upgraded radar can detect air targets up to 320 kilometers away and has the ability to prioritize them in order of potential threat it also includes the ability to carry the r-77 missile various russian air-to-ground missiles such as the kh-31 anti-radiation missile and the r37 which is reported to travel at hypersonic speeds of up to mach 6 and can strike targets over 300 kilometers away [Music] in 2015 the russian deputy defense minister yuri borisov reported that the upgraded fleet would stay in service into the 2030s meaning that the majority of the active fleet will have been flying for 50 years however it may not be much longer than that as the russian armed forces are reportedly working on a new and improved aircraft called the mig-41 rumors of the project began in 2014 when russian test pilot anthony corcha spoke of the potential sixth generation interceptor kvocha stated that the plane in development would have a top speed of at least mach 4 perhaps even reaching mach 4.3 which is 5 267 kilometers an hour also known as bloody fast progress on the 31's replacement is of course top secret but most estimates place its first flight somewhere in the mid-2020s likely after 2025. the design process was finalized in 2019 and the general director of the mickey and corporation ilya tarasenko has stated that the design will be reminiscent of the foxhound though it has also been influenced by the su-57 tarasenko also hinted at the inclusion of anti-satellite missiles and an anti-missile laser in the meantime we can expect to see the big 31 fox sounders part of the russian air force for at least another decade so i really hope you enjoyed that video if you did please do smash that thumbs up button below if you did enjoy it that's what the dislike button is for although you watched the ends unless you hate watching well give it a thumbs up subscribe to this channel and i'll see you next time oh if you've got a suggestion for a future mega project leave it in the comments below i look at those thank you for watching [Music] you

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Length: 17min 52sec (1072 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 22 2020