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Operational History
The aircraft has a [[bubble canopy]], and the wings are high on the fuselage. The twin engines are equipped with dual exhaust.
The aircraft has a [[bubble canopy]], and the wings are high on the fuselage. The twin engines are equipped with dual exhaust.
==Operational History==
===Arab-Israeli Clashes===
Soviet-flown Foxbats flew reconnaissance missions for the [[Egypt]]ians from 1971, over the Sinai and over [[Israel]]. The IAF tried to set up an interception using [[F-4 Phantom]]s, but all attempts failed.
On February 13, 1981, Syrian Foxbats attempted to intercept an Israeli RF-4 Phantom on a reconnaissance mission, but escorting [[F-15 Eagle]]s, vectored by an Israeli [[E-2 Hawkeye|E-2C AWACS plane]], downed one with [[AIM-7 Sparrow]] missiles. The other escaped. On July 29 of that year, another Foxbat was downed by F-15s under similar circumstances.<ref>''Rolling Thunder: Jet Combat from World War II to the Gulf War'', by Ivan Rendall, Dell Publishing, 1997</ref> The Syrian Air Force claimed that one of their MiG-25s downed an F-15 in June 1981, but this has never been confirmed.<ref>[http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_272.shtml Syrian Air-to-Air Victories since 1948]</ref> Syria still operates MiG-25s.
===Iran-Iraq War===
The Foxbat was [[Iraq]]'s most modern fighter at the start of the [[Iran-Iraq War]]. They were flown exclusively by Soviet pilots at first, but Iraqi pilots were trained to fly them after the war began. They claimed a number of victories in the interception role,<ref>''Arab MiG-19 and MiG-21 Units in Combat'', by David Nicolle and Tom Cooper, Osprey Publishing, 2004</ref> but their record is still largely unknown. Iraqi Foxbats proved as difficult to intercept as Syrian Foxbats had been to the Israelis, but Iranian [[F-14 Tomcat]]s managed to down eleven over the course of the war, all with Phoenix missiles.<ref>''Iranian F-14 Units in Combat'', by Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop, Osprey Publishing, 2004</ref> MiG-25s were used to attack Iranian shipping as well, but with no success.<ref>[http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_209.shtml Tanker War, 1980-1988]</ref>
===Gulf War and Confrontations with Iraq===
Iraq still had MiG-25s at the time of the [[Gulf War]], but they were little used for reconnaissance for fear of losses. A Foxbat scored the Iraqi Air Force’s only aerial victory of the war on the first day of bombing (see: [[F/A-18 Hornet]]), and the fast-moving MiGs were still hard to successfully intercept. However, two USAF F-15s managed to down two Foxbats on the third day of the war, expending seven missiles to do so.<ref>''F-15C Eagle Units in Combat'', by Steve Davies, Osprey Publishing, 2005</ref> Others were destroyed on the ground or flown to Iran to escape the Coalition juggernaut.
After the war, in December 1992, an American [[F-16]] downed a MiG-25 that had violated the no-fly zone over southern Iraq, the first kill for the F-16 in American service.<ref>http://www.f-16.net/f-16_fighting_falcon_airframe-3150.html</ref> Ten years (to the month) later, an Iraqi Foxbat shot down an unmanned Predator drone that had been sent to “bait” Iraqi fighters.<ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/25/tech/main551126.shtml Pilotless Warriors Soar to Success]</ref> All remaining Iraqi MiGs were destroyed or captured in the invasion.
==MiG-25 in Popular Culture==
When Western sources still thought of it as a superfighter, the Foxbat was the inspiration for novel and movie ''Firefox'', by Craig Thomas.
A B-52 survives an interception by MiG-25s in a tense scene in the nuclear war movie ''By Dawn's Early Light'', and Foxbats are briefly seen on the ground in the blockbuster ''Independence Day''.
==References==
<references/>
[[Category: Aircraft]]
[[Category: Aircraft]]
[[Category:Russia]]
[[Category:Russia]]