At the end of the 50s of the twentieth century, the "new world order" was finally formed - the two superpowers met in a mortal battle for the right to be the only winner. The Pentagon is seriously discussing the "Dropshot" plan - the destruction of 300 large cities of the Soviet Union from the air. The USSR is preparing jump airfields in the Arctic for its bombers - a real chance to reach America. About times, about morals!
On May 8, 1954, an entire MiG-15 regiment unsuccessfully chased the RB-47E, a reconnaissance modification of the B-47 Stratojet bomber, over the Kola Peninsula. Intercepting a plane without a speed advantage and without using air-to-air missiles is a disastrous business. Golden time of bomber aviation! The very logic of such "incidents" suggested that it was necessary to climb higher and / or fly faster - then the pilots would have no problems at all with overcoming the air defense of the "potential enemy". At that time, American designers created a whole line of combat aircraft focused on use at supersonic speeds and sky-high altitudes.
The Navy ordered a batch of A-5 Vigilanti strike aircraft for its aircraft carriers - a heavy "awl with a nuclear filling" was capable of going supersonic in cruising mode and climbing in a dynamic jump to a height of 28 kilometers, while remaining a specific deck-based vehicle.
The Air Force ordered a supersonic long-range bomber B-58 "Hustler" ("Naglets") from the Konver aircraft manufacturer, which became one of the most expensive aircraft in the history of aviation (1 kg of the Hustler design exceeded 1 kg of pure gold in cost).
The second mega-project of the Air Force was the XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic high-altitude strategic bomber. A steel monster with a take-off weight of 240 tons was supposed to pierce the USSR air defense system at three speeds of sound and from a height of 20 kilometers to bring down 30 tons of its deadly cargo. "Valkyrie" turned into a nightmare for its developers, two built machines got everyone so bad that they were written off to hell, never put into service.
The CIA also did not stand aside, by order of which the odious high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft U-2 "Dragon Lady" was created. The car did not shine with speed - only 800 km / h, but what a flight altitude! This is something - a motor glider climbed 25-30 kilometers and could hang there for 7 hours.
The success of the U-2 served as the basis for the creation of an even more frostbitten A-12 aircraft according to the Archangel project. And a few years later, the A-12 supersonic high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft were replaced by a new reconnaissance aircraft - the SR-71 Blackbird, which flew beyond the realm of the possible.
Russian surprise
To counteract this armada of ghouls, the Design Bureau A. I. Mikoyan in 1961 began to implement the idea of stratospheric interception. The scientific and technical groundwork obtained by that time allowed Soviet designers to create a unique aviation complex equipped with a powerful radar and long-range air-to-air missiles. The future fighter-interceptor was supposed to develop three times the speed of sound and hit targets at an altitude of 25 thousand meters. One of the most important requirements of the project was to ensure the reliability and ease of operation of the machine in the conditions of combat units of the Air Force, at the most ordinary military airfields, scattered in great numbers in the vastness of the USSR.
Overcoming the thermal barrier was a serious problem - at a speed of 2, 8M, the aircraft body instantly warmed up to 200 ° C, and the protruding parts and edges of the wings were even stronger - up to 300 ° C. At such temperatures, aluminum loses its strength properties. Steel (80% of the structure) was chosen as the main structural material of the MiG-25. Aluminum accounted for only 11%, the remaining 8% - titanium. According to this indicator, the MiG-25 was second only to the prototype of the Valkyrie bomber, the design of which was 90% made of steel.
Work on the creation of the MiG-25 was in full swing - the first two prototypes took off already in 1964. But then a streak of failures followed: in 1967, when the record was set, the leading tester Igor Lesnikov died, a year later the commander of the air defense, General Kadomtsev, burned down in the cockpit of a promising aircraft. The pilots did not give their lives to their homeland in vain - test flights of the super-interceptor continued, in 1969 the MiG-25 first intercepted an air target using an R-40R missile (the index "40R" means a radar seeker, there was another R-40T with a thermal seeker). In April 1972, the MiG-25P fighter-interceptor was put into service. Serial production of aircraft was launched a little earlier - in 1971 at the Gorky Aviation Plant (now the Nizhny Novgorod State Aviation Plant "Sokol").
Criticism
On January 16, 1970, the B-58 Hustler bomber made its last flight. In February 1969, the XB-70 Valkyrie project was bent. In 1963, in connection with the emergence of the Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missiles, the US Navy abandoned the deployment of nuclear weapons on the decks of aircraft carriers, re-equipping its A-5 Vigilanti strike missiles into long-range reconnaissance aircraft.
Aviation was rapidly leaving the stratosphere to low altitudes. The first alarm signal for aviators came in 1960, when Mr. Powers was shot down over Sverdlovsk by the S-75 air defense missile system. The Vietnam War made it clear that there is no escape from anti-aircraft missiles at high altitudes. The aircraft is easily detected and missed; neither supersonic speed nor maximum flight altitude help - the anti-aircraft missile still flies faster.
When the MiG-25 high-altitude interceptor was being designed in the USSR, the USA worked on a fundamentally different aircraft - the F-111 Aardvark tactical bomber; both machines made their maiden flight in 1964. The main "feature" of the F-111 was the breakthrough of air defense at extremely low altitudes. Initially, the F-111 was created as a promising fighter for the Air Force and the Navy, but a bomb load of 14 tons, a variable geometry wing, a crew of 2 and a perfect sighting and navigation system prompted the correct application for this machine. Nevertheless, the fighter index "F" ("fighter") was fixed in its name.
At three speeds of sound, it is impossible to detect a point target and strike at it. Attack and fire support aircraft preferred to operate at low speeds and low altitudes. As a result, a whole class of subsonic attack vehicles appeared, which are highly efficient when working on point targets - the A-6 Intruder deck attack aircraft, the A-10 anti-tank attack aircraft, the invulnerable Soviet Su-25 Rook … All the wars of the recent past have confirmed this theory - during Desert Storm, combat aircraft did not fly higher than 10 kilometers, and most often the flight altitude was measured in several hundred meters.
According to many experts, the MiG-25 high-altitude interceptor really had no competitors, so its capabilities remained unclaimed. The planes against which it was created flew off in the 1950-1960s. Serial production of the MiG-25 began in 1971 and continued until 1985, with 1186 units built. Around the same time, in 1974, the fourth-generation F-14 Tomcat carrier-based interceptor was adopted. And in 1976, the F-15 Eagle, an even more modern fourth-generation fighter, entered service.
In the United States, there were no third generation fighters at all, similar to the Soviet MiG-23 and MiG-25. The next after the "Phantom", which belongs to the generation 2+, the series went to the F-14, F-15 and F-16. The fourth generation of fighters differed from their predecessors in more balanced performance characteristics. There was a turning point in the views of military aviators: the pursuit of speed (in the F-15 it is limited to 2.5 speeds of sound) was replaced by the desire to achieve high maneuverability (the experience of close air battles in Vietnam affected) and improving the quality of onboard avionics.
Of course, it was difficult for the MiG-25 to conduct air battles in the changed conditions. Speaking about the events of the early 1980s in Lebanon, it is worth noting that the Israeli F-15s sneaked up on MiGs at low altitudes (the MiG-25 radar did not have the function of selecting targets against the background of the earth, therefore it did not distinguish between targets in the lower hemisphere) and used with impunity its technical advantage. There is a version that during one of the battles, on July 29, 1981, the MiG-25 shot down the Eagle near the coast of Lebanon. According to the Syrian military, their boat even picked up a life jacket and a set of signaling equipment. However, subsequently, no material evidence of this story was provided. The Syrian Air Force acknowledged the loss of three MiG-25s and hastened to withdraw the fighters of this type outside the scope of hostilities (due to the lack of suitable targets for them). And speaking of the "technical superiority" of the Israeli Air Force, it is necessary to make a reservation that entire battle groups from a pair of F-15s, an E-2 Hawkeye long-range radar aircraft and several Phantom scouts went out to hunt for single MiG-25s. served as bait.
MiGs were actively used during the Iran-Iraq war. The exact results of those battles have not yet been established, it is only known that the MiG-25 was mainly used in the role of reconnaissance and bombers. In July 1986, an Iraqi ace, Mohamed Rayyan, was killed in the MiG-25 cockpit. Upon returning from the mission, his plane was trapped by a pair of F-5 Freedom Fighter and shot down by cannon fire.
Another important milestone in the MiG's combat career was Operation Desert Storm. The Americans are proud that their F-15s were shot down by two MiG-25s. But the Americans do not like to remember how the "outdated" Iraqi MiG carried out a successful missile attack and shot down a modern carrier-based fighter-bomber F / A-18 "Hornet". And how many more victories of the MiG-25 are hidden behind the vague explanations of the Pentagon press service: "presumably shot down by anti-aircraft fire", "fell due to fuel consumption", "premature detonation of dropped bombs"? In 2002, the MiG-25 won another victory by shooting down an American drone in the skies over Baghdad.
MiG-25 vs SR-71 "Blackbird"
When talking about the MiG-25, someone will definitely remember the Blackbird. Let us try to briefly highlight some of the accents in this eternal dispute between a beaver and a donkey. The only thing these machines have in common is their high flight speed.
The MiG-25 was produced in two main versions (plus, countless modifications): the MiG-25P interceptor and the MiG-25RB reconnaissance bomber, with minimal differences between themselves. The MiG-25 is a serial aircraft, designed for mass construction and permanent operation in combat units.
SR-71 - strategic supersonic reconnaissance aircraft, 36 units built. A rare, largely experimental aircraft.
Now let's start from these facts. It is impossible to directly compare the MiG-25P interceptor with a strategic reconnaissance aircraft, due to the different requirements for their design. The MiG-25P was created for quick target interception, the Blackbird, on the contrary, had to stay in the airspace of another state for hours.
Therefore, the Mikoyan Design Bureau specialists managed with simple and reliable technical solutions, using heat-resistant steel as the main structural material. The time spent at a speed of 2, 8M for the MiG-25 was limited to 8 minutes, otherwise thermal heating would destroy the aircraft. During these eight minutes, the MiG-25 flew over the entire territory of Israel.
The SR-71 was supposed to maintain a flight mode at three speeds of sound for an hour and a half. Such a result was not possible to achieve by conventional methods. Titanium was widely used in the design of the SR-71, the most complex astronavigation system was used (it tracks the position of 56 stars), and the pilots sat in high-pressure suits, similar to space suits. The combat flight of the SR-71 resembled a circus: takeoff with half-empty tanks, access to supersonic sound and warming up the structure to eliminate expansion gaps in the tanks, followed by braking and the first refueling in the air. Only after that did the SR-71 go to the combat course.
But, I repeat, such perversions were the result of ensuring a long flight at three speeds of sound. There is no other way here. I'm not even talking about the fact that the operating costs of the MiG-25P and SR-71 were incomparable, due to the different tasks assigned to the machines.
If you look for the closest foreign analogue for the MiG-25P, then it will probably be the F-106 "Delta Dart" interceptor (operation started in 1959). Strong and easy to fly, the aircraft was in service with 13 US Air Defense Squadrons. The maximum speed is Mach 2, the ceiling is 17 kilometers. Of the interesting features - the armament complex, in addition to conventional air-to-air missiles, included two unguided AIR-2A "Genie" missiles with a nuclear warhead. Subsequently, the machine received a six-barreled cannon "Volcano" - again the experience of Vietnam affected. Of course, the F-106, like all members of the 100 series, was a primitive machine compared to the powerful MiG, created 10 years later. But, in the 60s, the Americans did not develop high-altitude interceptors, concentrating their efforts on creating 4th generation fighters. *
Practice is better than any theory
If the combat effectiveness of the MiG-25 interceptor turned out to be low, then why were the intelligence services of the Western countries so eager to get their hands on a copy of the Soviet aircraft? To begin with, the MiG-25 turned out to be a unique machine for setting records: the MiG set 29 world records in speed, rate of climb and flight altitude. Unlike the SR-71, on the Soviet interceptor at a speed of 2.5M, overloads of up to 5g were allowed. This allowed the MiG to set records on short, closed routes.
The MiG-25RB from the 63rd Separate Aviation Reconnaissance Detachment received the real glory of "unbreakable aircraft". In May 1971, scouts began regular flights over Israel. For the first time, when entering Israeli airspace, Israeli air defense systems opened heavy fire on the Soviet MiG-25RB. To no avail. A squadron of Phantoms was raised to intercept, but the Phantom heavy fighter-bomber did not at all gravitate towards conquering the stratosphere. Having fired all their missiles, the Phantoms returned with nothing. Then a link of "Mirages" rose into the air - extremely lightweight, under-refueled, they had to rise to an altitude of more than 20 km for the successful launch of their missiles. But the Israelis did not succeed in this maneuver either: the missiles fired after them could not catch up with the MiG.
Unbreakable scout - certainly unpleasant, but tolerable. But an indestructible bomber is really scary. Heat-resistant bombs FAB-500 were created especially for the MiG-25RB, which were dropped from an altitude of 20,000 meters at a speed of 2300 km / h. A bomb weighing 500 kg, having flown several tens of kilometers, was driven into the ground to a depth of many meters, where it exploded, turning the entire adjacent territory inside out. Of course, the accuracy left much to be desired, but the very inevitability of retaliation acted on the enemy in a sobering way.
Well, and finally I will tell you one funny legend: in the cooling system of the MiG-25RB equipment, 250 liters of "Massandra" were used - a water-alcohol mixture and 50 liters of pure alcohol, usable. With each acceleration flight (high speed at high altitude), this entire stock had to be replaced. Once A. I. Mikoyan received a letter from the wives of the military with a request to replace the alcohol with something else. Mikoyan replied that if, in order to obtain the required flight performance of the car, he needs to fill it with Armenian brandy, he will even fill it with ARMENIAN BRANDY!
