MiG-25 in the Middle East (1971-1982)

The famous Soviet MiG-25 'Foxbat' first appeared in the Middle East already in 1971. It first flew reconnaissance missions over Israel and Sinai but in early 1980s, it saw combat over Lebanon in Syrian service.

Sources:
-The Arab-Israeli War of Attrition, 1967–1973: Volume 3

- Lebanese Civil War: Volume 2 - Quiet Before the Storm, 1978-1981

- Israeli F-15 Eagle Units in Combat

#militaryaviationhistory #arabisraeliconflict #mig25

[i.setyawan]

Another amazing piece of history about the air war over the Middle East that I barely know. Thanks for yet another exciting video about this interesting aircraft.

[pedditte]

Wow! Thank you for use my livery of Siryan Mig-25 for DCS..I'm pround! 😄

[cannonfodder]

The Foxbat may have been limited outside of being an outstanding high speed bomber interceptor and reconnaissance platform, but in those rolls. It works very well.

Now if only someone could make the MiG-25PD for DCS...

[edwardpate]

When it runs away from you and you are in an F-4 you know it's fast!

[MichaelPrice-Jones]

Yet another great video. An example of just how entertaining and informative, well produced videos of this kind can be. Keep up your excellent work.

[juancarlosperezcortes]

Great story. All these little events made aerial warfare history a fascinating thing

[richardbradley]

I always thought the MiG 25 was a failure, thanks so much for correcting this misapprehension! At least it could do good recon!

[donparker]

Great story. I worked at Raytheon in Andover MA where they built the Hawk and Patriot. The Hawk was still in production then. I also remember when Victor Blenko stole a Mig-25 and landed in Japan. Interesting times. I didn't know they made and recon version of the Mig-25. That the Russians flew them themselves is certainly SOP for them.

[abbaerfani]

Thanks for making this video I always wanther why no one made the video about MIG25 over Israel and Iran but you did and again thank you so much for making this great video

[MarighnamaniMr]

Amazing video and very well presented. MiG-25 in the Middle East should be a Netflix documentary.

[mvfc]

based, glad you’re doing a series on the ‘War of Attrition’, alot of interesting air engagements took place during that time.

[migpilot]

Well done! The 25 was a staggeringly powerful and able aircraft for its day. Many, many, many myths about the Foxbat.

[akacadian]

Great video! I like how your meld the history with the DCS.

[michelsouzaqwerty]

I read something about an iraqui Mig-25 shooting down a US NAVY F/A-18 during the gulf war in 1991. The american pilot was Lt. Speicher and the iraqi pilot was Zuhair Dawood.

[McRocket]

During the 1971/72 deployment, a MiG-25 was tracked at Mach 3.2 over the Sinai.
However, apparently this caused the engines to overspeed and they had to be scrapped when they returned to base.

Very interesting video.
Thank you.
☮

[vincentstella]

As usual, another excellent and well researched video on military aviation history. Keep up the great work! And thanks gor posting your sources as well.

[eduardodeandres]

Muchas gracias.
Ha sido un muy buen video. Muy bien documentado.
Cómo siempre!

[JoeCool_]

Another excellent video, I remember how people was excited when Belenko defected to the West. The MiG-25 was seen as an unmatched fighter aircraft

[maximilianmax]

Some observations regarding the operational record of the MiG-25 interceptor versions.

1) As an interceptor in Soviet service the MiG-25 was used exclusively by the PVO, that is the Soviet Air Defence Forces, and usually aircraft developed specifically for use by the PVO were considered sensitive technology and were not exported even to Warsaw Pact member states. However, the 1976 Belenko defection completely compromised the MiG-25P (the baseline interceptor version) and hence the PD version was developed in a crash program, including many modifications like a new radar (a version of the radar used by the MiG-23ML/P, the first Soviet radar with a look down/shoot down capability), an IRST system, a new datalink and other improvements, something which also cleared the type for export, something which without Belenko's defection would most likely have never happened.

2) There is quite a lot of contradictory information regarding the MiG-25 interceptors exported to Arab states, namely Algeria, Iraq, Syria and Libya in the late '70s, but it looks like they were a mixture of MiG-25P and PD, having basically the same radar as the P version but with some of the improvements of the PD.

3) Regarding the Syrian claim from 1981 mentioned in the video about a Syrian MiG-25 shooting an Israeli F-15 down, it is part of a long list of such claims by Arab air forces, and some of them are described in detail in a Tom Cooper article in the War Is Boring website. Some of these claims are more credible than others, but ironically don't include what is actually by far the most credible case for an F-15 being shot down in air to air combat, the F-15E (callsign Corvette 03) shot down on January 19th 1991, day 3 of operation Desert Storm. Although it is usually credited to an SA-2 SAM, something which is the case with the article mentioned above as well, official USAF sources actually credit it to a Iraqi MiG-25, which if is indeed the case shatters the widely made claim that no F-15 has ever been shot down in air to air combat. If some F-15s have been shot down in air to air combat, we are certainly talking about a very small number of aircraft, something that changes practically nothing regarding the F-15s overall combat record, but would still constitute another example of debunked mythmaking, unsubstantiated claims being constantly repeated till they are accepetd as fact, and then debunked by more careful research.

[wiktorberski]

As a member of the Soviet military mission in Egypt recalled, Israeli intelligence had its agents among the Egyptian personnel of the base. As a result, the flights of the Mig-25 were not entirely a surprise to the Israelis. Therefore, the Russians decided to use a trick. They did not report the flight, but the "engine test" suddenly turned into a flight. And at that moment one could get the impression that the entire Egyptian personnel had to call someone