Foxbat Tales

Book excerpt: From the Middle East to the Iron Curtain?the definitive combat history of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25.July 1967: At the Moscow Air Show, the Soviets unveiled six new state-of-the-art aircraft. From among this lineup of new fighters and interceptors stood the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25-purportedly capable of outrunning and outmaneuvering any aircraft in NATO's inventory.Yet even before its public appearance in Moscow, the MiG-25 had been a grave concern for Western analysts. Indeed, this new interceptor could fly at speeds in excess of Mach 3 and cruise at altitudes heretofore deemed unreachable for a tactical fighter. Moreover, NATO's intelligence community was baffled by how the Soviet Union had cobbled together such a "masterpiece" of modern engineering.The reality, however, was that this "interceptor" was a poorly-designed airframe with an oversized motor. Although it excelled as a reconnaissance aircraft, it fared poorly as a dogfighter - and it was typically the loser when pitted against Western aircraft like the F-14 Tomcat and F-15 Eagle.From the Sinai Peninsula?to the Soviet-Afghan War?to Operation Desert Storm, "Foxbat Tales" is the definitive operational and combat history of the MiG-25.