This Jet Terrified the West: The MiG-25 Foxbat

This video was made possible thanks to CuriosityStream. Watch thousands of high-quality documentaries   and get access to my streaming service, Nebula, using the link in the description. In November 1971, two Israeli fighter planes race to intercept an unidentified plane. The F4 Phantoms are among the fastest aircraft in the world, but they are not fast enough. Because they are chasing a MiG-25. A plane that can fly so fast and high that it can outrun any fighter or air defense system. For almost a decade, the Soviet Union's MiG-25 will remain a complete mystery, leaving Western intelligence scrambling for answers. In the early years of the Cold War, a new type of weapon emerged: the intercontinental bomber.

A plane with enough range to reach almost any part of the world and carry out a nuclear attack. America's first intercontinental bomber not only flew farther, it flew higher and faster than any previous bomber, making it extremely difficult to intercept. And it began a decade-long trend of building strategic bombers that flew higher and faster. The Soviet Union responded by building increasingly capable interceptor fighters to try to 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 that it would render the entire Soviet Air Force virtually obsolete.

The XB-70 was so cutting-edge that just a few years earlier it would have been impossible to build. But the Americans intended to have the bomber ready in just a few years. A sense of panic gripped the Soviet leaders. As the largest country in the world, there were over twenty-two million square kilometers of airspace surveillance. At any moment, American bombers could emerge from the north, or from bases in the east, or from NATO allied countries in the

west

. And just a handful of supersonic bombers would be enough to overwhelm the air defenses. The Soviet Union would have only a few 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 allowed and developed in record time. But to effectively protect the country's enormous airspace, they would also need to mass produce the new plane by the hundreds. The MiG-25 was the Soviet Union's response, an interceptor that would overcome obstacles with brute force. To catch up to the XB-70, engineers would need to equip the MiG with enormously powerful engines. But there would be no time to develop new ones. Instead, they would make do with a turbojet originally built to power cruise missiles and reconnaissance drones. They were the largest engines ever fitted to a fighter, but were essentially expendable.

This meant that initial versions of the MiG had engines with a service life of only 150 hours. At intercept speeds, the MiG-25 would have to endure significant kinetic heating, with some parts reaching 300 degrees Celsius. But lightweight, heat-resistant titanium was too difficult to produce on a large scale. So engineers built the plane largely from a heavy nickel-steel alloy, a material that could be quickly welded and easily repaired in even the most remote and poorly equipped air base. But that meant the forty-thousand-pound-plus plane could never be maneuverable, a feature considered irrelevant to its mission. To detect 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 penetrate their jamming devices.

And you would only need one type 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, longer range, and an even higher service limit. 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-25s were rolling off the assembly lines each month. The Mig-25 would fly higher and faster than any fighter jet in history and would have a profound effect on the Cold War.

Just not in the way the Soviets expected. In 1967, the Soviet Union organized a massive air show. And they made sure the Americans were watching. The event was even broadcast in English for Western audiences. The Soviets introduced several new aircraft for the first time, but saved the best for last. In the final 10 minutes, three MiG-25 prototypes roared past the audience. It was the first time anyone outside the Soviet Union had seen the new plane. And for Western intelligence, it set off alarm bells. The grainy images revealed an aircraft with all the characteristics of an agile fighter; the unusually large wings suggested extreme maneuverability.

The huge air intakes alluded to huge engines and experts suspected the use of advanced, lightweight titanium. But what worried them most was that the plane looked eerily similar to concepts for America's next-generation air superiority fighter. A plane that would not be ready for another ten years. In Washington, military planners struggled to understand how the Soviets could have advanced so far. Because just a few months later, the Soviet Union began recording incredible new world records for speed and altitude. And the media soon found out, spreading fears that the mysterious new plane could outperform anything built by the West.

The Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force even publicly admitted that, for the first time, the Soviets had an aircraft that the United States could not match. The perceived threat posed by the mysterious new aircraft motivated the United States to dramatically increase performance targets for its next-generation fighters. But for years, Americans were desperate for any information they could get. They would see them again in 1971, when Israeli radar controllers began tracking MiG-25s over the Saini Peninsula. The planes flew at more than two and a half times the speed of sound, at an altitude of more than twenty kilometers.

At one point, they even tracked one of the MiGs accelerating beyond Mach 3. But the planes flew so high and fast that no fighter in the world could catch up with them. For more than 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 6, 1976, the Soviet Union's most secret plane appeared seemingly out of nowhere over northern Japan. He then made a dramatic crash landing at a quiet commercial airport, nearly colliding with a passenger plane and skidding off the runway. It was the first time anyone in the West had seen a MiG-25 in person.

And as the curious gathered, no one seemed to know where it had come from or how it had gotten here. Viktor Belenko, 29, piloted the MiG. He was quickly detained, where he explained that he escaped from the Soviet Union to seek asylum in the United States. Disillusioned with life in the Soviet Union and the harsh conditions at his air base, Belenko had planned his escape for months. While conducting a training exercise over the Sea of ​​Japan, he reported an engine problem, giving him the opportunity to withdraw from his group. Belenko then descended low enough to evade radar detection.

Once out of Soviet airspace, he headed for the nearest Japanese air base. But with limited fuel and navigation difficulties, he was forced to find the nearest airport. Belenko was well aware that his MiG-25 was a prized possession and provided invaluable information to Western intelligence, who sent his MiG to a nearby air base to examine every inch of it. And they got the shock of his life. Obviously, the MiG-25 was not the agile fighter they expected. Its heavy stainless steel structure severely limited maneuverability and the large wings were necessary only to keep the plane in the air.

The engines, while powerful enough to exceed Mach 3, could not maintain those speeds without permanent damage. Which means the practical limit was around Mach 2.8. The MiG's radar was powerful but lacked look-down capability, which meant it could not track low-flying targets. The compromises that Soviet engineers were now forced to make were evident. But they wouldn't have mattered much in intercepting a high-altitude supersonic bomber like the B-70. But the B-70 was never produced. Instead, the Americans switched from high-speed, high-altitude tactics to low-altitude radars and defense evasion 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 protect against were a handful of reconnaissance aircraft. The same media that once stoked fears about a Soviet superplane now openly derided 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 leaders, who demanded that he return to the Soviet Union along with the stolen MiG. Instead, Belenko was granted American citizenship, while his MiG was shipped back to the Soviet Union in dozens of pieces. The Americans had learned everything there was to know about the MiG-25 and now understood the critical components of the Soviet air defense system.

With the MiG-25 so compromised, Soviet engineers had to work day and night to modernize the aircraft. Equip the MiG-25 with more powerful and reliable engines, a more sophisticated observation radar and the ability to deploy a wider range of missiles... Meanwhile, older versions of the plane, which are no longer a secret very well saved, they were exported to other countries. In total, almost twelve hundred MiG-25s were produced. But more than fifty years later, the MiG-25 remains the fastest fighter aircraft 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, degraded export versions even met with moderate success in combat. But by the late 1970s, the Soviet Union had moved on. Because the development of a next-generation interceptor was underway. An aircraft that would have state-of-the-art avionics, sophisticated engines, and a radar and weapons control system so advanced that it could attack multiple targets simultaneously from a hundred kilometers away and even connect with other fighters to coordinate an attack. In the process, the capabilities of older Soviet fighters were instantly improved. While the MiG-25's design revolved around brute force, the new MiG-31 would use the latest in technology to become the world's most formidable interceptor.

You can learn more about the brilliant engineering of the MiG-31 in my latest video now on Nebula. Nebula is where you can see a growing number of my exclusive videos, like a strange Soviet proposal that would have turned the MiG-25 into a supersonic airliner. Nebula is where YouTube's top educational creators upload new videos every day. And where you can enjoy videos without advertising or messages from sponsors. The best part about Nebula is that it's free when you sign up for CuriosityStream. A streaming service with thousands of big-budget, award-winning documentaries. One of my recent favorites is Armstrong, a beautiful documentary narrated by Harrison Ford that follows the incredible life of Neil Armstrong, from his early days in the Navy to his daring career as a test pilot and astronaut and his eventual landing on the Moon.

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