Yeager got to be buds with Viktor Belenko, who absconded to Japan with a Mig Foxbat. As the US studied more, the less capable the Mig-25 seemed to be. Mighty damned fast, tho'. It was originally designed to be able to intercept the B-70. D'oh!
The MiG 25 Foxbat was fairly capable -- but only within a narrow parameter ascribed primarily to an interceptor.
American fighter tech advanced well but the tech was so expensive the plane was normally designed to do more than one particular task well; that is to be as adaptable as possible. The F-15 Eagle has proven to be such a vehicle. The Russians, being not quite as developed, didn't play that game. They tended to design their planes for one specific task, and be as good as possible at it.
The Foxbat was clocked flying over a mideast country and landing in Egypt once at Mach 3+ speeds. This was well above what similar American Fighters could do (the SR 71 was not considered a "fighter" at the time). This scared the **** out of American Inteligence. The fact it's engines had fried themselves into crispy critters and were replaced didn't raise eyebrows since we didn't "get" the idea that a pilot would deliberatly do that to a plane as it might prove suicidal (!! ya THINK!!!). With Viktor Belenko's defection came the knowledge this was a common occurance at Mach 3+ speeds and pilots were therefor forbidden to push the Foxbat that fast for no good reason.
It's mid 1970s radar suite was full of vacuum tube electronics, which shocked us regarding its primitiveness, until it was pointed out the radar was so powerful it literally burned through many electronic countermeasures we had. In fact, operating the radar while running along on the ground taxiing , landing, or taking off would would often cook any small animals that the radar beam intercepted. Belenko said one Russian high officer who was reported to be rather an animal lover issued standing orders not to turn the radar on until after take off and to turn it off before landing, due to this.
It had an fuselage made with aluminum which made American experts wonder how it could be a Mach 3 jet as the friction would melt it. Belenko respponded that at high altitude, the air was thinner, the friction therefor was less and the machine could withstand the forces there, so they simply didn't fly it fast at lower altitudes.
Insofar as dogfighting abilities, it had none. It couldn't take on an F-15 Eagle --- in fact, it could not out dogfight an older F-4 Phantom.
It's role was as an interceptor ONLY and it had been designed solely to counter the B-70 Valkyrie. America cancelled that worthy craft but beurocratic inertia in the Russian system kept the Foxbat production going ... after all, it WAS a triumph of Russian high tech -- after all, it scared the **** out us.
Belenko made some other revelations about the Foxbat that revealed that even in its primary role to kill the Valkyrie, it would not, in fact, have been able to do very well at that. But, hey, it SCARED American Air Force Jocks!
After we tore Belenko's MiG-25 apart at the Japanese airport, we boxed up the parts, and shipped them back to the Soviets, embarrassing them, and displeasing Viktor Belenko, who had considered the plane a gift to America, a country he had hopes of moving to and obtaining citizenship.
