MiG-25, "Foxbat" — a Soviet single-seat supersonic high-altitude interceptor designed by the Mikoyan–Gurevich design bureau. Its maiden flight took place in 1964; it was accepted into service in 1967.
The main variants of the MiG-25 are: the fighter-interceptor (MiG-25P/PD/PDS), the reconnaissance aircraft (MiG-25R/RB), and the air-defense suppression aircraft (MiG-25BM).
By the mid-1990s, interceptors of this type had been withdrawn from service with Russia's air-defense forces. Aircraft that had not yet exhausted their service life were placed in storage and transferred to reserve bases. They were also retired from the Ukrainian Air Force and the Air Force of the Republic of Belarus. In the Russian Air Force, the MiG-25P was replaced by the next-generation MiG-31.
The reconnaissance variant MiG-25RB remains in service with the Russian Air Force.
Production
Serial production of MiG-25 interceptors at Sokol Aircraft Plant continued from 1969 to 1982 (the last aircraft were delivered to the customer in 1983). A total of 1,190 MiG-25s of all variants were built (four in Moscow and 1,186 in Gorky), including more than 900 MiG-25P and MiG-25PD interceptors.
Combat use
The first aerial engagement involving a Syrian MiG-25 interceptor took place on 13 February 1981. A pair of Israeli RF-4C reconnaissance aircraft was used as bait. Flying into Syrian airspace, the Phantoms provoked the MiG-25 into giving chase. Concealed from Syrian radar operators behind a mountain ridge on the Lebanese–Syrian border, two F-15s lay in ambush along the reconnaissance aircraft's withdrawal route. As the MiG-25 approached, one F-15, shielded by a cloud of chaff, broke from the ambush in a climbing maneuver. Coming from the lower hemisphere, it remained invisible to the MiG-25 pilot; ground controllers were unable to warn the pilot due to active jamming of control radio channels by the adversary. The Eagle fired an AIM-7 Sparrow missile, which struck the MiG-25's left wing.
Five months later the roles were reversed: on 29 May, two Syrian MiG-21s flew a diversionary mission. A pair of F-15s, spreading out vertically, began to pursue them. Two MiG-25PDs were scrambled to intercept the Eagles — one MiG conducted a head-on attack while the second attacked from the flank. The pilot of the first interceptor, due to a failure of the automatic tracking system, was unable to fire his missiles and was shot down by an AIM-7 Sparrow launched by the lead F-15. The pilot of the second acquired a target at a range of approximately 40 km and destroyed the wingman F-15 with two R-40 missiles. No further aerial engagements involving Syrian MiG-25s were recorded.
During the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–1988, the interceptors suffered no losses.
On 16 January 1991, the Gulf War began, and as early as the 17th an Iraqi MiG-25P interceptor shot down a U.S. Navy carrier-based F/A-18C. That marked the end of the Iraqi MiG-25s' successes: on 19 January, two F-15C fighters of the 58th Fighter Squadron, 33rd Fighter Wing (serial numbers 85099 and 85101), piloted by Captains Pitts and Tulini, each destroyed a MiG-25P with AIM-7 missiles.
Nearly two years later, on 25 December 1992, two U.S. Air Force F-16s shot down an Iraqi MiG-25 — the first combat use of the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile. Ninety minutes later, an aerial engagement between an F-15E strike fighter and a MiG-25P resulted in no success for either side. On 2 January 1993, during an attempted interception of a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, an aerial engagement between a MiG-25 and an F-15C ended inconclusively.
Already in the post-Soviet period, MiG-25PDs that had passed to Azerbaijan (Baku hosted a repair plant for the interceptors) were used with considerable success, employing heat-seeking R-60 missiles against Armenian tanks. Apparently, the heavy armor losses suffered by the Armenians were not solely due to poor crew training… Reconnaissance variants were also used intensively. True, because the equipment was not functioning, bombs had to be dropped by eye.
Interesting facts
On 6 September 1976, one of the MiG-25s was flown to Japan by Soviet Air Force pilot Viktor Belenko and landed at the civilian airport of Hakodate.
The Americans dismantled the aircraft, studied its IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) system, and returned it to the USSR in pieces. The aircraft was sent for examination to Sokol Aircraft Manufacturing Plant, then to the Daugavpils Higher Military Aviation Engineering School, where it was used as a trainer; in the late 1980s it was written off and broken up for souvenirs.