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In November 1971, two Israeli fighter jets
race to intercept an unidentified aircraft. The F4 Phantoms are among the fastest jets
in the world, but they’re not fast enough. Because they’re chasing a MiG-25. A plane
that can fly so fast and high, it can outrun any fighter or air defense system. For nearly a decade, the Soviet Union’s MiG-25 will remain a complete mystery and leave
western intelligence scrambling for answers.
In the opening years of the Cold War a new kind
of weapon emerged, the intercontinental bomber. An aircraft with enough range to reach nearly any
part of the world to deliver a nuclear strike. America’s first intercontinental bomber not only flew further, it flew higher and faster than any bomber before
it, making it extremely difficult to intercept. And it started a decade-long trend of
building strategic bombers that flew ever higher and faster. The Soviet Union responded by building increasingly capable fighter-interceptors
to try and stop them. But by the late 1950s, Soviet intelligence had learned that the Americans
were developing a new state-of-the-art bomber that would fly so high and fast, it would render the
entire Soviet Air Force virtually obsolete.
The XB-70 was so cutting edge, that only a few
years earlier it would have been impossible to build. But the Americans were aiming to have
the bomber ready in just a few short years.
For Soviet leadership, a sense of panic set in.
As the largest country in the world,
there were over twenty two million square kilometers of airspace guard. At any moment,
American bombers could emerge from the north, or from bases in the east, or NATO
allied countries in the west.
And only a handful of supersonic bombers
would be enough to overwhelm air defenses.
The Soviet Union would have just a few short years
to design and build a new interceptor to match the incredible performance of the upcoming B-70.
It would have to be as fast as Soviet ingenuity could make it, and developed in record
time. But to effectively guard the country’s enormous airspace, they’d also need to mass
produce the new jet by the hundreds.
The MiG-25 was the Soviet Union’s
answer, an interceptor that would overcome the odds with brute force.
To catch the XB-70, engineers would need to equip the MiG with enormously powerful engines.
But there wouldn't be time to develop new ones. Instead, they’d make due with a turbojet
originally built to power cruise missiles and reconnaissance drones. They were the
largest engines ever put on a fighter, but they were essentially disposable. It meant
that initial versions of the MiG had engines with a service life of just 150 hours.
At intercept speeds , the MiG-25 would have to withstand serious kinetic heating,
with some parts reaching 300 Celsius. But lightweight heat-resistant titanium was just
too difficult to produce on a mass scale.
So engineers built the jet largely out of heavy
nickel-steel alloy, a material that could be quickly welded together and easily repaired at
even the most remote and ill-equipped airbase.
But it meant the more than forty thousand pound
jet could never be maneuverable, a characteristic considered irrelevant for its mission.
To spot enemy bombers, the MiG-25 was equipped with a colossal 600 kilowatt
radar designed to detect high flying aircraft up to a hundred kilometers away and
burn right through their jamming devices.
And it would only need one kind of weapon. Four of
the largest air-to-air missiles ever produced.
Along with the interceptor, there would
also be a dedicated reconnaissance version with powerful surveillance cameras, increased
range, and an even higher service ceiling. Some versions could even be equipped for high altitude
bombing. But the vast majority of MiG-25s would be built as dedicated interceptors.
Mass production began in 1969, and at one point, one hundred MiG-25’s
were rolling off assembly lines every single month. The Mig-25 would fly higher
and faster than any combat jet in history, and it would have a profound effect on the Cold War. Just
not in the way the Soviets were expecting.
In 1967, the Soviet Union put on a
massive airshow. And they made sure the Americans were watching. The event was even
broadcast in English for western audiences. The Soviets unveiled several new aircraft for
the very first time, but they saved the best for last. In the final 10 minutes, three prototype
MiG-25s were sent roaring past the audience. It was the first time anyone outside of the
Soviet Union would see the new aircraft. And for western intelligence, it set off alarm bells. The grainy footage revealed an aircraft
with all the hallmarks of an agile fighter, the unusually large wings suggested extreme
maneuverability. Enormous air intakes hinted at massive engines and experts suspected the
use of advanced lightweight titanium.
But what worried them the most, was that the plane
looked eerily similar to concepts for America’s next-generation air superiority fighter. A jet
that wouldn't be ready for another ten years.
In Washington, military planners
struggled to understand how the Soviets could have leapfrogged so far
ahead. Because only a few months later, the Soviet Union started registering incredible
new world records for speed and altitude.
And the media soon caught wind, spreading
fears that the mysterious new jet could outperform anything built by the West. The
US Air Force Chief of Staff even publicly admitted that for the first time, the Soviet’s had a
jet that the United States couldn't match.
The perceived threat posed by the mysterious
new jet motivated the US to drastically increase performance targets for its next-generation
fighters. But for years, the Americans were desperate for any information they could get.
They’d catch another glimpse in 1971, when Israeli radar controllers began
tracking MiG-25’s over the Saini peninsula. The jets were clocked flying at more than two and
half times the speed of sound, at an altitude of over twenty kilometers. At one point, they even
tracked one of the MiGs accelerating beyond Mach 3. But the jets flew so high and fast,
no fighter in the world could catch them.
For over a decade, the MiG-25 remained
a mystery and continued to worry western intelligence. But that was about to change
in the most dramatic way possible.
On September 6th, 1976, the Soviet Union’s most
secretive jet showed up seemingly out of nowhere over northern Japan. It then made a dramatic
crash landing at a sleepy commercial airport, Nearly colliding with an airliner and
skidding right off the end of a runway.
It was the first time anyone in the West would
see a MiG-25 in person. And as curious onlookers gathered, no one seemed to know where
it had come from or how it got here.
Piloting the MiG was 29 year old Viktor
Belenko. He was quickly taken into custody where he explained that he escaped the Soviet
Union to seek asylum in the United States.
Disillusioned with life in the Soviet
Union and harsh conditions at his airbase, Belenko had planned his escape for months. While
on a training exercise over the sea of Japan, he reported engine trouble, giving him a
chance to fall back from his group.
Belenko then descended low enough
to evade radar detection. Once out of Soviet air space, he set course
for the nearest Japanese air base. But with limited fuel and difficulty navigating,
he was forced to find the nearest airport.
Belenko was well aware that his
MiG-25 was a prized possession and he provided invaluable information to
western intelligence, who shipped his MiG to a nearby air base to examine every inch of it.
And they were in for the shock of a lifetime. The MiG-25 obviously wasn’t the agile
fighter they were expecting.
Its heavy stainless steel airframe severely
limited maneuverability and the large wings were needed just to keep the jet airborne. The
engines, while powerful enough to exceed Mach 3, couldn’t sustain those speeds without
permanent damage. Meaning the practical limit was around Mach 2.8.
The MiG’s radar was powerful but lacked look-down capability, meaning it
couldn't track low flying targets.
The compromises that Soviet engineers were forced
to make were now glaringly apparent. But they wouldn’t have mattered much for intercepting a
high-altitude, supersonic bomber like the B-70. But the B-70 never made it into production.
Instead, the Americans switched their tactics from high speed and high altitude, to low
altitude radar and defense evading aircraft.
Leaving western intelligence perplexed as to why
the MiG-25 was produced in such large numbers. The only other aircraft the interceptor
would potentially have to guard against were a handful of reconnaissance aircraft.
The same media that once stoked fears about a Soviet super-plane now openly mocked the MiG
as a crudely built machine that was more or less useless in combat. An inferior aircraft that
proved the Soviets were behind in technology.
Belenko’s defection outraged Soviet leadership,
who demanded that he return to the Soviet Union along with the stolen MiG. Instead,
Belenko was granted American citizenship, while his MiG was sent back to the
Soviet Union in dozens of pieces.
The Americans had learned everything there was
to know about the MiG-25, and they now understood critical components of the Soviet air defense
system. With the MiG-25 so thoroughly compromised, Soviet engineers had to work around the
clock to modernize the aircraft.
Equipping the MiG-25 with more
powerful and reliable engines, a more sophisticated look-down radar, and the
ability to field a wider range of missiles..
Meanwhile older versions of the jet,
no longer a closely guarded secret, were exported to other countries. In all,
nearly twelve hundred MiG-25s were produced.
But more than fifty years later, the MiG-25
is still the fastest fighter jet ever built. An aircraft that would set twenty nine
World Records. In 1977, a MiG-25 climbed to an incredible altitude of 123,000 feet,
setting a record that still stands today.
Although the aircraft had been built
to intercept high altitude bombers, downgraded export versions even
saw moderate success in combat.
But by the late 1970s, the Soviet
Union had moved on. Because development of a next-generation interceptor
was well underway. A jet that would have cutting edge avionics, sophisticated engines,
and a radar and weapons control system so advanced, it could engage multiple targets
simultaneously from a hundred kilometers away and even link with other fighters to coordinate
an attack. In the process, instantly upgrading the capabilities of older Soviet fighters.
Where the MiG-25’s design was about brute force, the new MiG-31 would use the state-of-the-art to
become the world's most formidable interceptor.
You can learn more about the MiG-31’s
brilliant engineering in my latest video now on Nebula. Nebula is where you can watch
a growing number of my exclusive videos, like a bizarre Soviet proposal that would’ve seen the
MiG-25 turned into a supersonic business jet.
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The movie Firefox with Clint Eastwood is loosely based on Viktor Belenkos defection.
Edit: typo
Fascinating stuff. Years ago in college I wrote a research paper about how the US acquired various versions of MiG during the Vietnam War and had a special squadron of pilots that flew them against US planes in Nevada. If I recall correctly this program continued in some form and the US still has some newer MiGs and Sukhoi jets that they dick around with.
Edit: One of these projects was called “Have Doughnut” which is kinda fun.
Fun fact about Viktor Belenkos defection. On his first visit to a US grocery store Victor assumed it was staged government propaganda meant to impress him because he'd never seen anything like it. It was just a normal grocery store in Langley, Virginia.
Damn, I’m not an airplane guy but that was pretty cool.
All videos made by Mustard (the youtuber who made this video) are amazing. He is the only reason why I got Nebula and only use it to watch his exclusives.
I love this story because the foxbat would show up and check out nato and bolt off at ridiculous speeds. The US legit feared a Cold War era version of an F-22 was already fielded and was so spooked they went no holds barred, unlimited funding, pull all he engineers and scientists approach and came up with the F-15. They realized the mig was a one-trick pony and ended up with an airframe that is in widespread use to this day.
My grandfather worked on the XB-70 project as an engineer. Its a pretty impressive aircraft I saw the remaining one in ohio.
The Mig-25 was the only confirmed Iraqi jet to bring down a Coalition aircraft. RIP Capt. Scott Speicher.
I was in my teens when it landed in Japan. I was into military aviation and at first thought it would be a standard Russian Mig. Then I saw the large twin tailpipes and knew exactly what it was. They completely took it apart before they boxed it up and sent it back to the Russians. Among other things they found out it used vacuum tubes in the electronics. Turnabout is fair play though, after Iran fell the Russians offered engineering assistance to keep their F14 Tomcats running provided they could study the aircraft, much of the technology went into the Mig 31 Foxhound, which uses a lot of F14 tech, minus the problematic folding wings.