The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 "Foxbat" is a supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that was among the fastest military aircraft to enter service.
It was designed by the Soviet Union's Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau and is one of the few combat aircraft built primarily using stainless steel. It was the last plane designed by Mikhail Gurevich before his retirement.
The first prototype flew in 1964, and the aircraft entered service in 1970. It has an operational top speed of Mach 2.83 (Mach 3.6 is possible but at risk of significant damage to the aircraft and its engines) and features a powerful radar and four air-to-air missiles.
When first seen in reconnaissance photography, the large wings suggested an enormous and highly maneuverable fighter, at a time when U.S. design theories were also evolving towards higher maneuverability due to combat performance in the Vietnam War.
The Foxbat sought to answer the Soviet Union’s need to protect its airspace from fast, high-flying U.S. bombers. The most prominent example was the B-58 Hustler, a Mach-2-capable nuclear bomber that entered service in 1960, but on the horizon loomed the B-70 Valkyrie, a futuristic bomber capable of penetrating Soviet airspace at speeds in excess of Mach 3. Armed with long-range missiles, a large radar and powerful engines, the Soviets designed the Foxbat to catch and kill these fast bombers.
The Foxbat is a high-performance, high-altitude interceptor. There are several versions of this aircraft: A (basic interceptor); B (reconnaissance); C (two-seat trainer); D (reconnaissance with a modified radar); and E.
The Foxbat A aircraft, originally designed to counter high-altitude threats, has been converted to Foxbat E, providing a limited low-altitude look-down and shoot-down capabilities somewhat comparable to Flogger (MiG-23).
The wings are high-mounted, swept-back, and tapered with square tips. The aircraft has two turbojet engines and large rectangular air intakes below the canopy and forward of the wing roots. There are dual exhaust. The fuselage is long and slender with solid, pointed nose.
The aircraft is box-like from the air intakes to rear section. It has a bubble canopy. On the tail are twin, sweptback, and tapered fins with angular tips. There are flats mid- to low-mounted on fuselage, swept-back, and tapered with angular tips.
The MiG-25 capabilities were, and are, eye-popping. It can make Mach 2.83 in sustained flight, and can go over Mach 3 in bursts if no one cares about the destruction of the engines. It can reach an altitude of over sixty-five thousand feet.
Foxbats designed for reconnaissance missions carried sophisticated electronic and photographic equipment, and could reach even higher ceilings. A few Foxbats were optimized for high-speed strike roles.
The MiG-25 aircraft is armed with four R-40 (Nato codename AA-6 Acrid) air-to-air missiles equipped with infrared and radar homing heads. The range of these missiles is 2-60 km.The missiles are suspended from four underwing pylons. It may also be fitted with two R-40 and four R-60 (AA-8 Aphid), or two R-23 (AA-Apex) and four R-73 (AA-11 Archer). The MiG-25 is not fitted with a gun.
MiG-25 aircraft is powered by two R-15B-300 single-shaft turbojets, arranged in the tail section of the fuselage. The engines develop 11,200 kgf of thrust with fully selected afterburner. The engines provide a maximum speed of 3,000 km/hour at high altitude.
The maximum speed at low altitude is 1,200 km/hour. The aircraft has a service ceiling of 22,500 m. The range at altitudes between 9-11 km with speed of Mach 0.85 is 1,950 km. At higher altitudes between 20-21 km and speed Mach 2.35, the range is 1,650 km. The maximum in-service g-load is 4.5g.
The appearance of the MiG-25 sparked serious concern in the West and prompted dramatic increases in performance for the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle then under development in the late 1960s.
The capabilities of the MiG-25 were better understood by the west in 1976 when Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko defected in a MiG-25 to the United States via Japan. It turned out that the aircraft's weight necessitated its large wings.
Production of the MiG-25 series ended in 1984 after completion of 1,186 aircraft. A symbol of the Cold War, the MiG-25 flew with Soviet allies and former Soviet republics, remaining in limited service in several export customers.
It is one of the highest-flying military aircraft, one of the fastest serially produced interceptor aircraft, and the second-fastest serially produced aircraft after the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft that was built in very small series compared to the MiG-25.
As of 2018, the MiG-25 remains the fastest manned serially produced aircraft in operational use and the fastest plane that was offered for supersonic flights and edge-of-space flights to civilian customers.
In contrast with its older cousin, the MiG-21, a very limited number of Foxbats remain in service. Most of these fly in the Algerian Air Force and the Syrian Arab Air Force, although some reports have emerged of a MiG-25 returning to service in Libya.
Most Foxbats retired shortly after the end of the Soviet Union, with a few serving for a time in successor state air forces. Iraqi MiG-25s were largely destroyed in the Gulf War, with the survivors eliminated in Operation Desert Storm.
In the USSR, the MiG-25 would eventually become the MiG-31 Foxhound, a variant/rebuild that resolved many of the problems with the original, while retaining its key characteristics. The Foxhound does have a look down/shoot down radar, which gives it a fighting chance of tracking and destroying low-flying bombers and cruise missiles.
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Length: 23.82 m
- Wingspan: 14.01 m
- Height: 6.1 m
- Wing area: 61.4 m2
- Empty weight: 20,000 kg
- Gross weight: 36,720 kg
Performance
- Maximum speed: 3,000 km/h (1,900 mph, 1,600 kn) / Mach 2.83 at high altitude
- Range: 1,860 km (1,160 mi) at Mach 0.9
- Ferry range: 2,575 km (1,600 mi)
- Service ceiling: 24,000 m (78,740 ft) with two missiles
- Rate of climb: 208 m/s
Armament
- Missiles:
- 4 × R-40RD/TD air-to-air missiles
- 2 × R-23 AAMs
- 4 × R-60 AAMs
- 4 × R-73A AAMs
Avionics
- RP-25 (Smerch A-4) radar based on vacuum tube electronics, for early MiG-25P. RP-25MN (Saphir-25) radar based on semiconductor electronics, for later MiG-25PD
- A RV-UM or a RV-4 radar altimeter
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