You heard wrong pal, your own Air Force Secretary Robert C. Seamans called the Mig-25 "Probably the best interceptor in production in the world today".
And It's avionics such as radar, data-link et were extreemly good for their day.
Next time cite your work and stop posting worthless information.
Is that why they didn't want to sell aircraft to China
Again you keep ignoring the fact that about 50% of the Mig crashes were due to pilot error, further you ignor the fact that India flies 50 year old aircraft, and once again you're ignoring factors such as poor maintanance, poor wheather, and outside anomolies such as bird strikes, but i expect that from a
cheapo like yourself. And for your information, the latest Russian aircraft such as the SU-30 have an outstanding safety record.
The Sabre pilots were the best pilots America had to offer, i beleive most if not all had experience from WWII, the Chinese and Korean pilots, on the othe hand, cound hardly keep their Migs in the air. In other words those US Sabre pilots got 10:1 kill ratio against Korean and Chinese pilots but Russians got a higher kill ratio against the Americans.
26 Russian pilots accounted for several hundred downed enemy aircraft.
Here is a link, in it you will see their kills:
Russian Aces of the Korean War - MiG-15 Pilots versus USAF F-86s
I have seen the Mig 25 at Wright Pat, it seems like a piece of junk, you can see the rivets in the plane,,,your right it was a good interceptor, but a lousy fighter, as it very slow to manuver.
Upon dismantling the Mig-25, the data was analyzed by the Foreign Technology Division of the Air Force at Dayton, Ohio. There were many surprises:
The Mig had been manufactured in February 1976 and thus was one of their latest most sophisticated production aircraft.
Transistor circuitry was not used but instead the Soviets relied on vacuum tubes for most of their electronics. The Soviets reasoned the vacuum tubes were less affected by EMP waves in the case of nuclear attack; were more resistant to temperature extremes and they were easy to replace in remote airfields where transistors may not be readily available if repairs were needed.
Welding was done by hand.
Rivet heads were exposed in areas not critical to parasitic aerodynamic drag.
Pilot forward vision was highly obstructed.
With huge Tumansky R-15D-300 engines the Mig was considered almost a rocket.
Pilots were forbidden to exceed Mach 2.5. There was a total of three engine instruments and the airspeed indicator was redlined at 2.8 Mach.
Above Mach 2.8 the engines would overheat and burn up. The Americans had clocked a Mig-25 over Israel at Mach 3.2 in 1973. Upon landing in Egypt, the engines were totally destroyed. We did not understand that the engine destruction was inevitable.
The combat radius is 186 miles.
Without using afterburner; staying at optimum altitude and not maneuvering, the Mig can fly in a straight line for 744 miles.
The plane was so heavy at 64,200 pounds, that according to early rumors Soviet designers had to eliminate a pilot ejection system. However this was disproved. Most MiG-25s used the KM-1 ejector seat. The last versions used an early variant of the famous K-36 seat. The speed record for the fastest successful ejection (Mach 2.67) is held by a KM-1 equipped MiG-25.
Maximum operational altitude: Carrying two missiles, 78,740 feet (for maximum two minutes duration); carrying four missiles, 68,900 feet is maximum.
Maximum altitude of missiles: 88,588 feet.
Ability to intercept an SR-71: Belenko states the Mig-25 cannot intercept the SR-71 for several reasons: The SR-71 fly too high and too fast; the Mig cannot reach it or catch it. The missiles lack the velocity to overtake the SR-71 and in the event of a head on missile fire (The Golden BB), the Guidance system cannot adjust to the high closure rate of the SR-71.
The Mig-25 has a jam proof radar but cannot distinguish targets below 1,640 feet due to ground clutter. The radar was so powerful it could burn through jamming signals by approaching bombers.
Maximum G load: With full fuel tanks 2.2 G's is max; with near empty fuel tanks, 5 G's is dangerous. The Mig-25 cannot turn inside a U.S. F-4 Phantom fighter!
The plane was made of steel alloy, not high temperature titanium, although strips of titanium was used in areas of high heat concentration.
In a tight turn the missiles could be ripped from the wings.
The Mig-25 was was not a fighter or an air superiority aircraft but rather designed by the Soviets to climb at tremendous speeds, fire missiles at one pass of the target and then land.
Search and tracking radar had a range of 55.9 miles.
The pilot duties were to take off, turn on the auto pilot and await instructions to fire the missiles from ground controllers. The Mig-25 had a superb auto pilot and digital communications from an onboard computer to ground controllers.
Credit is given to the Soviets for building a high altitude Interceptor in a short period of time with the materials and engines available to them in 1967 in order to counter the perceived threat of the XB-70.
On November 12, 1976, sixty-seven days after the defection of Belenko and his Mig-25 to the West, the United States and Japan returned the Mig-25 to Russia...in dismantled pieces.
Mig25 VS SR-71
Tell me the truth if you live in Russia do you really really belive that communist propganda they turn out.
vacuum tubes
