Soviet Union's MiG-25 Foxbat: Sky Hammer During the Cold War

The MiG-25 Foxbat built by the Soviet Union is one of the speediest interceptors ever produced by the Russians at the time.

During the cold war era, conflicts would need extensive and powerful planes to intercept US nuclear bombers in a given scenario. Its main purpose was to kill the US F-15s and US bombers spearheading an attack on Moscow.

Soviet Union Aircraft Boosting the Red Army

The Cold War era saw the Foxbat's premium threat the US could not ignore, even the F-15 was not keen to meet the heavy Russian fighter. Western intelligence wanted to get info about the deadly fighter, reported View60S.

It was such an unknown to the NATO alliance that even the US SR-71 Black Bird would not risk and encounter anywhere close to Soviet airspace because the reputation of the heavy fighter preceded it.

But out of nowhere, a MiG-25 Foxbat landed in Japan at the Hakodate airport on the island of Hokkaido. This first encounter with a beast of a plane by a western standard has no equivalent.

The aircraft defected to the US side on September 6, 1976; it had long-range powerful dual engines. Its features exceeded the western planes with robust Soviet engineering.

Developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich, the Foxbat is a high-speed supersonic interdictor and recon plane that originated in the 1960s. The aircraft flew for the first time in 1964.

America never imagined its Soviet Union nemesis with the MiG-25 Foxbat could have a close to Mach 3 monster threatening the US. Later, the F-15 and legendary F-14 Tomcat would give a boost to the gap.

Foxbat had twin tail fins outside the powerplant, with two horizontal planes sweeping back. It intentionally had two of the most powerful engines in tandem position.

The airframe is designed with square forms; intakes are on the sides of the cockpit and have aerodynamic flow from the sides coming from the nose cone.

Wing configured as monoplane style on the intakes, with sharp leading edges too. Horizontal stabilizers and wing are sweeping back, though the canopy is heat-resistance except with limited visibility.

The engines are two R-15B-300 after-burning turbojet engines, rated for 73.5 kN dry thrust and 100.1 kN with an afterburner. It has a maxed-out speed of 3,000 km/h, cruising at higher altitudes or Mach 2.83 and low flight altitudes at about 1,100 km/h.

The range lessens as it reaches more than Mach 2.35, that is 1,630km from 1,860 km at Mach 0.9. The distance it can fly is 2,575 km, it can fly up to 20,000m with a climb rate of 208m/s; it can reach the edge of space too.

MiG-25 Foxbat Sets Records in Its Time

Foxbat has gotten records for its amazing speed and ceiling height for its generation setting the benchmark for the next-gen fighters. Soviet test pilots put a total of 38 world aviation records.

One reason why the allies don't want to mess with its weapons loadout state of the art then, even the Smerch-A radar capable of BVR hit up to 65 km.

When the defector's plane was reverse engineered, it was stopped in production, with 1,200 units made after. The increased cold war competition led to the Su-27 and later the MiG-31 with beefed-up equipment. Compared to the MiG-25 Foxbat that protected the Soviet Union in the Cold War, it remained lethal due to its speed equaling the Black Bird.