Those crazy russian generals

Yes, sorry I know Russian aircrafts better than USA aircrafts.

 

Only if he calls me Adrian and climbs into my bed as I sleep.

 

As I recall, the Americans were surprised by the Foxbat's design and engineering. The Mig 25 was allegedly simplified to minimize the potential effects of magnetic interference from a nearby atomic blasts. American warplanes have very sophisticicated avionics systems, all computer driven, and therefore subject to interference from intense radiation. As I recall, some of the Migs do not. Instead they are controlled by standard mechanical and hydraulic systems. Does that ring a bell?

That's me back in the First Millenium BC. Oh Oh, I don't want to mislead anyone. Sorry to say that I was not aan AF pilot, just a measly civilian "dignitary".

 

I do not know my planes but I do know that there is nothing more comforting on the ground then hearing the sonic boom of an American made F-16 soaring above.

 

and i remember somthing about vacuum tubes instead of chips in the migs.

 

Possibly yes, but unlikely, and there hasn't been a confirmed instance of that happening. At this point it is all merely speculation as to what could possibly happen if an operational Stinger fell into the wrong hands. Those missiles, now 20 years old, have a shelf-life. Also, why were the SAMs sent to Afghanistan in the first place?

I'm sure the Soviet army left plenty of military equipment behind for the Mujahideen, the Taliban, and others fighting for control in Afghanistan over the last 20 years.

I'd be willing to wager that similar things took place in the USSR/Russia, considering the number of unaccounted for nuclear and conventional weapons that came to light after 1991. They had to go somewhere, but I doubt the profits of those sales went to fund a Central American resistance movement.

Yep, just like the Soviet government supplied the air forces of East Germany, Cuba, Yugoslavia, North Korea, etc.

It has been estimated that the Iranians were able to obtain over 80% of the parts necessary to keep the F-14s flying while they needed them. The knock-off parts were duplicated and sold by black marketers, regardless of the fact that the US refused to sell any replacements to Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Shah's government took delivery of a whopping 40 planes. Sure, those F-14s were in service for years with the Iranian air force, throughout the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988, and were employed primarily in the role of AWACS because of their powerful radar. The F-14s were originally sold to Iran in the first place to stop Soviet MiG-25 over flights in the area. The MiG might have been faster but it couldn't outrun the Phoenix missile.

No, F-14s are not in service with the Iranian airforce today, but they haven't been for close to two decades. The Iranians haven't needed them since the early 1990s, about the time Russia started selling them Sukhois and MiGs. Besides, those planes are now about 30 years old, and they too have a life span.

I guess I'm more concerned about Russia helping Iran and North Korea with their nuclear programs.

Sure does. Just ask the Chinese, Cuban, North Korean, Iraqi, Vietnamese, Indian, and Iranian governemnts. Oh, and let's not forget the "fringe groups" who might now possess a nuclear capability.

 

Mig-25 was designed with the primary purpose of intercepting USA B-70 Valkiery bomber. Had this bomber gone into service, the USA would have had the fastest bomber in service, one which with then current USSR aircrafts could not intercept. B-70 Bomber programme was cancelled after one of the examples was destroyed in a mid-air crash with an F-104 chase plane on photo run.

One aspect of Soviet fighters to consider, until the very most recent examples, they tended to go for low tech, high performance. There is also to be considered the philosphy of VVS that close combat will be a factor and not distance combat with the use of missiles as is the USAF theory.

In America aircrafts, there is a tendency for high tech, high cost, high maintenance and temperamental aircraft that can only be operated in sterile environments and not in dirty or rough airstrips as Soviet/Russian aircrafts can be.

BTW, I would recommend to any aircraft enthusiast a visit to the USAF museum in Dayton USA, very interesting, even if you go through and walk by USAF personel and speak to your family in Russian!

 

Actually the USA and NATO benefited this way from the reunification of the GDR and the BDR in that the Luftwaffe took over the MIG-29 Squadron and these aircrafts were flown until recently in the Luftwaffe.

Iran Contra again - highly likely that parts for the F-14 were obtained during that time also. Iran used the F-14's very sparingly even in the war with Iraq, in fact for the most part during the whole of the Iran-Iraq war there was not very much air combat, neither nation was very willing to use and lose such valuable equipment, and besides human lives in the form of soldiers on the ground are far cheaper and much more expendable to a morally bankrupt government.

 

I second that!! One of the most amazing museums I have ever been to. It's just incredible what will fit into a building. The B-2 bomber and the F-22 were just awesome and how did they ever get that B-52 in there and positioned? To stand there and see the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki really gave me an eerie feeling and I love the way they display the many aircraft in a diarama setting. They just received the B-17 "Memphis Belle" and are going to fully restore it. Said it would be ready for display in approx. 3 years. That I will have to see!!

 

One small fact that I've put out there before...The 5 largest arms traders in the world are the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia, and China...In that order. When we are arming people to the teeth, we have little room to criticize other countries arms sales.

 

The heck with the B-52, that is small compared to the B-36 - now that aircraft is a behemoth. The B-70 Valkerie is kind of squeezed in the gallery and has too many other aircrafts around it to appreciate its sheer size.

There is another aircraft in the main gallery, I think the Korean War era, a first generation MIG-15 that was flown by North Korean pilot to defect to the south to collect his $100000 reward. This is a famous aircraft, and many USA test pilots got to light it including Chuck Yeager.

Well worth a visit, you have to get there very early in the morning and sign up and show passports etc is to go to the Presidential Aircraft exhibit on the other side of the airfield. You have to take a bus at a particularly designated time they give you. I liked the Lockheed Constellation that Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy flew on. Also 26000, the Boeing 707 that first flew during the Kennedy years.

I think given the not a lot of traffic, number of excellent aircrafts, etc, this museum is a bit better than the Smithsonian Air & Space, but then I have not yet travelled back to see the new Udvar Hazy Museum at Washington Dulles Airport yet.

 

In Sept. when I was there, they said that they are going to build yet another building onto the museum and move all the presidential and research aircraft from the AFB. This will end the hassle and the SHORT time you have to see them on base. With the new facility they will be able to set up permanent displays for the aircraft.

 

Much in the same way the Soviets benefited from examining (and copying) unexploded Sidewinders that impacted Chinese MiGs over The Taiwan Straits in the 1950s, or at disassembling captured US AAMs found at crash sites during the Vietnam War, and at perusing Iranian F-14s after 1979.

This mid-air collision did take place, but the XB-70 program was dropped for three principle reasons unrelated to the crash:

1) The USAF finally realized that a bomber flying at 70,000 feet and at three times the speed of sound would not be an accurate weapon.
2) Improvements made in Soviet surface to air missile technology made the XB-70 an easy target.
3) Rapid advances being made in cruise missile technology

The MiG-25 certainly presented a dilema to Western experts, until Viktor Belenko defected to Japan with one in 1976. US technicians spent about 3 months (maybe not quite that long) disassembling the plane and examining what made it tick before they sent it back to the USSR in crates. What they found was interesting. The plane was eventually described as a combination of mostly off the shelf 1950s/1960s technology merged with a bit of high tech, an innovative Soviet design that was clearly misunderstood and overestimated by the west. Some observations:

- The MiG-25 was made almost exclusively from steel. It lacked titanium in all but the most critical of locations.
- The radar utilized vacuum tubes instead of solid-state technology.
- The plane could perform no more than a 4G turn with its wing tanks loaded with fuel or risk sustaining catastrophic structural failure.
- The MiG could fly briefly at mach 3, but doing so caused its engines to accelerate out of control, much like over-revving an automobile engine to the point of damaging it internally.

In many respects the MiG-25 was inferrior to the US F-4 Phantom II. And, just as the XB-70 spurred the development of the MiG-25, the MiG-25 led the US to develop the F-15.

I wouldn't say that is always the case. USN fighters certainly operate is a less than "sterile" environment as do many US Marine aircraft.

I highly recommend the book, MiG Pilot, authored by John Barron. It chronicles the story of Viktor Belenko and his defection to Japan. It is out of print but might be found at a used book store.

 

Indeed, military planners on both sides circumvent the reality that intercontinental ballistic missiles accomplish far more and faster than bombers, but they lack the sexiness of the bomber.

Yes indeed, I have read Mig Pilot, quite fascinatingly, because Mr. Belenko was based at Sokol Airbase in the Magadan Oblast, a city in the Far East of Russia which I know quite well.

As you note, the MIG-25 had it's failings, however moreso than it was spurred by the development of the B-70, indeed it initially caused much greater alarm within the Pentagon which prompted the USA to spend exponentially more funds on a suitable aircraft to best it's performance. Indeed the MIG-25 in it's original state was not suitable for long term commitments, and was rapidly eclipsed by the development of more advanced Soviet fighters such as the MIG-29, MIG-31(an offshoot variant) and the SU-27.