A Russian Fighter Pilot Defected with a MiG-25 Foxbat Warplane

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Key Points: The MiG-25 Foxbat, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau, was built to counter America’s SR-71 Blackbird but failed to live up to its fearsome reputation.

-Capable of reaching Mach 2.83, its speed was impressive but came at the cost of fuel efficiency and maneuverability.

-The bulky, radar-visible MiG-25 was designed for high-altitude operations but struggled at lower levels. The Foxbat’s capabilities were overstated until a Soviet pilot, Viktor Belenko, defected with one in 1976, revealing its limitations.

-While it saw combat in multiple theaters, the MiG-25 symbolized Soviet overreach, embodying a Cold War-era panic rather than a real aerial supremacy threat.

Unmasking the MiG-25: How the Foxbat Fell Short of Its Soviet Legend

Designed by the iconic Soviet defense contractor, Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau, the MiG-25 “Foxbat” was meant for one thing: killing the SR-71 “Blackbird.” 

The MiG-25 was met with such fanfare in the Soviet Union that US intelligence became obsessed with gathering as much information as possible on the MiG-25, fearing that it would be able to shoot down the SR-71, which was conferred decisive advantages onto the Americans in terms of gathering sensitive surveillance on the USSR. 

Nightmarish visions of the SR-71 being knocked down like Gary Powers or, worse, Rudolf Anderson (a U-2 pilot was infamously killed when his spy plane was shot down over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis) dominated the minds of American intelligence officers. 

They became obsessed with determining the true threat and nature of the mysterious MiG-25.

What they later found was interesting, to say the least.  

MiG-25: Dangerous Bird or Overhyped

The Russian fighters were armed with R-4 air-to-air missiles. At the same time, the MiG-25 was designed to conduct surveillance missions similar to those of the United States and NATO countries, as the SR-71 was designed to be done by the Americans.

Despite being nightmare fuel for American intelligence operatives, the MiG-25 was not what it appeared. 

Having been designed and deployed during the final days of the Soviet Union, the MiG-25 was a microcosm of the problems that afflicted the Soviet Union in those days overall. 

Soviet intelligence services, of course, waged a relentless disinformation campaign for Western media sources to consume in which they overstated the MiG-25’s capabilities and obscured its immense weaknesses.

For starters, the MiG-25 burned through gas. So, while it was an impressively fast bird, its range and combat radius were severely limited. Two Tumansky R-15B-300 afterburning turbojet engines were specifically tailored for the kind of high-altitude performance the MiG-25 was meant to operate at.

In this way, the MiG’s engines delivered in spades. Indeed, the bird could reach Mach 2.83 when it kicked in its afterburners. 

However, the use of stainless steel meant the MiG-25 was heavy. Hence, the gas guzzling nature of the plane—and the cost of operating the Foxbat was onerous, especially for a Soviet Union that was in its final death agonies.

The MiG-25’s airframe was bulky and easy to spot on radar. Speed, not stealth, was the defining aspect of this Soviet bird. Oh, and when operating at lower altitudes, the MiG-25 was cumbersome to pilot. It really was just meant to fly high and fast—all while burning copious amounts of dinosaur juice. 

The Foxbat beat some flight records to compound the existential fears of Western intelligence services.

So, in the terrified minds of Western intelligence operatives and some defense planners, the MiG-25 was everything they feared it to be. In fact, the Pentagon was so frightened of the Soviet MiG-25 that they specifically designed elements of what was then their new fourth-generation warplane, the F-15 Eagle. 

The Truth Will Always Out

It was not until 1976 when legendary Soviet Air Force pilot Viktor Belenko manned his MiG-25 in the dead of night and absconded with it from the Soviet base in Vladivostok, flying it across the boundary separating the Soviet Union from the Free World and landing in Japan.

Immediately, the Americans took the warplane from Japan and dissected it. Upon examination, US intelligence realized that, while presenting some threat, the MiG-25 did not live up to the hype. 

Between the superior SR-71’s surveillance capabilities and the fourth-generation warplanes, like the aforementioned F-15 Eagle, the United States could handle the warplane. Despite the cat being let out of the bag by Belenko, the Soviets exported this craft. The Foxbat saw combat across multiple theaters, ranging from the Iran-Iraq War, and was used for recon missions by the Soviet Air Force during its fateful (and failed) war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. 

In all, the MiG-25 represents a kind of end-of-line moment for Soviet airpower. Yes, it was a competent plane. No, it never lived up to the extreme hype that surrounded it. Just like the Soviet Union in its final decade or so, the warplane was all bravado.

Like the Soviet Union, ultimately, its reputation imploded along with its value and usefulness. So, the legendary “Foxbat Scare” was just that: a mindless panic.

There’s a lesson here regarding our current strategic environment and the dangers of threat inflation.

About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert 

Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior Editor at 19FortyFive.com and a contributor at Popular Mechanics, consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, The American Spectator, to the National Interest. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.