I was recenetly given a Hasegawa 1/72 MiG-25 Foxbat A as a gift and I immediately thought: “Wow, that is one NICE looking plane” (I love the more “box” like planes with swept wings). I always thought the design of the USAF F-15 had a sleek look and it was not until later that a thought hit me - the MiG-25 looked surprisingly like the F-15! I did a bit of research and I found out the MiG-25 was one of the most feared Soviet aircraft from 1967 - 1976. Apparently a Lt. defected and landed a MiG-25 in Tokyo. Turns out the MiG-25 was not an air superiority fighter at all, it was simply a high speed, high altitude interceptor/recon AC with missle ONLY (no cannons!). The plane had poor maneuverability and poor low-altitude performance as well.
I also learned that during the Gulf War an Iraqi MiG-25PD recorded the only Iraqi air-to-air kill during that war. It downed a US F/A-18 Hornet and eluded F-14 and F-15s! All I want to know is how an obviously newer and superior strike-aircraft like the F/A-18 can fall prey to an outdated interceptor like the MiG-25PD. I’m also pretty sure US pilots are much better trained than Iraqi pilots of the time.
There is a book called “Mig Pilot” by John Barron about Lt Belenko who was the pilot that flew the plane out of Russia. It’s a good story. Check it out at your local library or on line.
I’d love to do a 1/32 Foxbat. Great sleek shapes, kinda boring paint scheme though.
The F-15 was build specifically to counter the MiG-25 threat… and the F-15 turned out to be a far better aircraft. I recall hearing that when MiG-25’s were flown near Mach -3 or greater, the engines needed to be replaced, so they were usually restricted to less than Mach 2.8.
As for the F-18 shoot down, I don’t believe I have ever heard that one. I know they got chased around by some F-15s for a while. If the Foxbats did get a leg up on a Hornet, it is quite possible that the Hornet driver was taken by suprise, but that is rare when AWACS is up. Still, all the skill in the world won’t garauntee you will evade a missile. I’ll have to look into that one further.
I would also love to build a 1/32 MiG-25, but I think MiG-25’s top it out at 1:48. I would also love to build a 1/32 MiG-30 Foxhound (kind of like a “Super Foxbat”). It is basically the MiG-25 with many improvements and changes.
I wouldn’t say that the F-15 is better then the Mig-25, because they where designed for very diferrent missions.
The only job of the Mig-25 was to get high, to shoot american bombers, and get there fast!
The F-15 is by far more alround, making it better in present situations. It can drop bombs and preform air supiority missions. But was it a better inceptor at the time? I’m not sure…
As for the lack of a cannon, remember the F-4 or F-106? they didn’t have a cannon as when they where designed. The cannon to the F-4 was added in later versions, the first ones didn’t have it!
An all-missile fighter was considerd a logical step at the time.
For the MiG 25 it really can’t hit the Mach 3 speeds it gets totally unstable at Mach 2.6, yes in therory it can but in real life it can’t, as for the kill of the F/A-18 during Desert Storm the pilot was most likely over loaded with information and was more worried about getting to the target at the time of the kill, he was most likely detecting ground radar locks as well as air to air and could not defer the most threating lock, and for the Iraqi pilot he had a lucky shot, as for head to head all out fight the Western countries planes that where produced from the mid-1970’s will out class the big MiG, as for the newer MiG’s they are about equal to their western counter parts, and if you look into history you’ll see A-1 Skyraiders taken out MiG’s as with F4U Corsairs downing MiG’s the MiG’s where more superior then the Prop driven planes but the underdog won, and it was the pilots who came through in the end, as with the MiG 25 to the F/A-18 the MiG was far out classed but the pilot out flew the other, yes it happens to the best of them, look at Chuck Yeager he was shot down during WWII by ground fire because he became complacent to his surroundings and thats when the bad luck sets in
For the MiG 25 it really can’t hit the Mach 3 speeds it gets totally unstable at Mach 2.6, yes in therory it can but in real life it can’t, as for the kill of the F/A-18 during Desert Storm the pilot was most likely over loaded with information and was more worried about getting to the target at the time of the kill, he was most likely detecting ground radar locks as well as air to air and could not defer the most threating lock, and for the Iraqi pilot he had a lucky shot, as for head to head all out fight the Western countries planes that where produced from the mid-1970’s will out class the big MiG, as for the newer MiG’s they are about equal to their western counter parts, and if you look into history you’ll see A-1 Skyraiders taken out MiG’s as with F4U Corsairs downing MiG’s the MiG’s where more superior then the Prop driven planes but the underdog won, and it was the pilots who came through in the end, as with the MiG 25 to the F/A-18 the MiG was far out classed but the pilot out flew the other, yes it happens to the best of them, look at Chuck Yeager he was shot down during WWII by ground fire because he became complacent to his surroundings and thats when the bad luck sets in
Comparing a Mig-25 to an F-15 is the old apples and oranges thing. They both carry the “interceptor” title, but they were designed for a totally different mission. The Foxbat was intended to quickly go to 70 to 80,000 feet and shoot down the XB-70. That aircraft did not go into operation, but the SR-71 did,so the Mig was kept around to try to counter the SR. It is theoretically possible for the Foxbat to shoot down the Blackbird, but everything would have to be absolutely perfect to do it. The F-15 cannot achieve this altitude and speed with any hope of an intercept. The USAF ran some tests of the F-15 against the SR-71 over Edwards AFB in the late 70s and the only way the Eagle could get close to the SR was if the F-15 was given the SR-71s exact position, heading, altitude & speed ahead of time. (reduced speed and altitude with electronic defensive systems turned off at that). After a successful “intercept” under those conditions, TAC was bragging about how the Eagle could shoot down an SR anytime it wanted to. The next time they practiced this, the SR folks didn’t give out any advance information and went through the test area at full speed and altitude with def systems on. The Eagle never even got a whiff of the SR.
However, at low to medium altitudes, the F-15 would eat the Foxbat, (or SR-71), for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The F-15 was designed for maximum dogfighting ability at those altitudes to counter the Mig-21,23, etc and the Mig-25 is an absolute dog in that environment. The SR-71 is limited to about 2.5 to 3 G, so obviously, it couldn’t begin to turn with an Eagle.