Spyplane Smasher: This Plane Was Built to Kill America's SR-71

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Meet the MiG-25

The last Foxbats left Russian service in December 2013. A small number reportedly remain active in Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Syria. “The withdrawal of the MiG-25 leaves notable gaps in Russia’s aerial reconnaissance-gathering capabilities,” Combat Aircraft reporters Stefan Buettner and Alexander Golz lamented.

(This article by David Axe originally appeared at War is Boring in 2014.)

In 1964, the Soviet Union’s awesome MiG-25 Foxbat jet fighter flew for the first time. Specifically designed to intercept the U.S. Air Force’s spy planes, the MiG-25 could routinely reach Mach 2.8—nearly three times the speed of sound.

Only the American SR-71 Blackbird was faster—and only slightly.

For nearly 25 years starting in the late 1960s, Foxbats sortied from Soviet bases any time an SR-71 rocketed along Soviet borders. But the longest-serving MiG-25s were the reconnaissance models—the MiG-25Rs.

These super-fast, high-flying spy planes were Russia’s answer to the SR-71. And whereas the Blackbirds finally left service in the late 1990s, the camera-equipped MiG-25Rs soldiered on until December 2013, when the single-seat jets finally became too old and too expensive to keep in the air.

America replaced the SR-71 with radar-evading spy drones. Russia seems to have abandoned the Foxbat without a direct replacement, severely impairing Moscow’s ability to keep tabs on its enemies.

Untouchable spy

Able to outrun normal air defenses during the most dangerous few minutes of a mission, the MiG-25R like the SR-71 was essentially invulnerable to the enemy.

Made largely of heat-resisting nickel steel alloy plus some titanium and fitted with two massive Tumansky turbojets together producing an incredible 45,000 pounds of thrust, the MiG-25 represented a huge advancement for the Soviets.

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