Exploring Espionage: The MiG-25 Foxbat

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20 Sept 2025

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The reconnaissance aircraft would be the original, “eye in the sky” platform. In a world without satellites, these aircraft would play a key role in identifying military assets, carrying out battle damage assessments and smoothing over some of the most well-known geopolitical incidents thanks to the free-flow of information that would help ease tensions in times of crisis.

The Spitfire would emphasise the utility of a recon platform. Here’s one in US colours. Source: Wikipedia.

What would start with the Spitfire would end with the SR-71 Blackbird, and along the way, there’d be other important contenders like the MiG-25 as well. Let’s take a look!

The Development Cycle

With the introduction of the new jet engine, aircraft performance would go through a period of significant improvements. While early jets were laggy, temperamental beasts, each new iteration would smooth these issues out while providing relatively good performance figures.

It would be a matter of years between the propeller-driven P-51 Mustang and the high-performance F-101 Voodoo, which had a comfortable cruise speed of 1.8 Mach, and with each iteration, jets would become faster and more reliable.

The dedicated reconnaissance aircraft would remain vitally important to air forces the world over, and while the US would be responsible for initiating many of these programs, the USSR wouldn’t be snoozing here either. While some aircraft, like the Beirev S-13 would attempt to copy the American-designed U-2, Soviet designers would also attempt several organic designs. It would be these platforms that would result in what would eventually become the MiG-25 Foxbat.

It was the last hurrah for Mikhail Gurevich, who was educated in Kharkiv. Source: Wikipedia.

With the first design iteration occurring in 1964, the aircraft would go through some distinct changes before its eventual appearance in service around 1970. As it arrived in service, it sported two powerful Tumansky turbofan engines, a Smerch A (TL-25) Radar and an airframe that was primarily made of titanium, meaning that the Foxbat was a platform with few peers.

But it would be one well-known aircraft designer who would be responsible for delivering the aircraft successfully, and it would be the last hurrah before his eventual retirement. Ukrainian-educated Mikhail Gurevich (The G in MiG) would use the platform as the final swan song in a career that had lasted more than forty years.

The Ukrainian Effect

While Gurevich was Jewish and would be born in the Kursk region, it would be Kharkiv that would educate him and give him the skills needed to design some of the world’s most cutting-edge aircraft. In aviation, Ukraine would end up punching above its weight in its own right, something we’ll look at more in future articles. An industrial powerhouse, rockets, submarines, missile-carrying cruisers and of course, aircraft would all be responsible for being produced in Ukraine during the Cold War.

The MiG-21, which would be a successful fighter jet on its own, suffered from several shortfalls that would lower its overall utility. It had a single engine, was short-legged with limited range and had basic, almost rudimentary technology that matched the technology of the time.

In comparison, the MiG-25 would aim to combine several new technologies into a single platform to create a well-specc’d, interceptor aircraft. With a big radar, high-speed and long-range, not only was the Foxbat a brilliant interceptor on Soviet soil. It was a well-designed and extremely fast reconnaissance platform in its own right.

As such, when the aircraft entered initial production in 1970, it didn’t take long for the order book to expand. Over the course of its career, the MiG-25 would operate in 13 countries, including India, Iraq, Belarus, Libya and of course, the USSR. Because of this, the aircraft would be a key player in several notable geopolitical incidents of the past.

The MiG would have its own recon version, the MiG-25RB. Here’s one in Iraqi colours that was buried during the Gulf War. Source: Wikipedia.

Anxious Times

When first discovered by the West, the effect was immediate. Analysts, who had previously complained about a “Missile Gap”, found something new to complain about, stating that the large engines and long range of the MiG provided a platform that, at the time, the Americans had no equal to.

This realisation would eventuate in the development and production of the F-15 Eagle, a US-designed, twin-engine fighter that would dominate the closing years of the Cold War, before it would morph into the F-15 Strike Eagle, which would later become a key player in the War on Terror.

After Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko would defect to Japan with his MiG-25, the West would receive its first proper look at the aircraft, and what they found was… a little surprising.

While the MiG-25 would have blisteringly fast performance in a straight line, it couldn’t turn and suffered several performance limitations in comparison to the F-15. It was a good aircraft, yet it had been entirely overestimated by Western designers, which would ultimately be no match for the F-15.

The camera payload that would be carried by the MiG would be quite useful to countries that lacked a satellite or space program. Source: Wikipedia.

Service History

One very distinct difference that the MiG-25 has is that while most of its peers are long since retired, as of 2023, it still sees service in several countries. While the F-15E is still in service, Lockheed’s SR-71 Blackbird was retired more than two decades ago.

As satellites would replace the Western spyplanes, countries that lacked the resources to initiate their own programs would use the MiG extensively in Global hotspots.

An Indian MiG on a recon mission would overfly Pakistan at supersonic speed in 1997, while in the Middle East during the Iran-Iraq war, the MiG would be a key player for Iraq, carrying out both interceptions and recon runs.

It would be the Sinai Peninsula that would see things getting particularly intense, though. In the aftermath of the Six-Day War, Soviet MiG-25 pilots based out of Egypt would fly over Israel at high speeds. One of these missions would be so intense that the aircraft would be tracked on radar at a speed of more than 3.2 Mach (2,435mph), suffering significant engine damage whilst doing so.

The Foxbat would also be responsible for a single kill that would be credited to Iraq when, in the early stages of the Gulf War, an Iraqi MiG-25 (25211) would shoot down a US F-18 Hornet (163484).

World Record Holder

When we looked at the American SR-71 in previous articles, it highlighted that decades after its retirement, it would still be responsible for claiming and holding several aircraft performance records, and in this instance, the MiG is no different.

Over the course of its career, it would achieve more than 29 performance records, and in a nod to its design, some of these records are still held today.

The MiG, which was particularly good at Time to Height records, would achieve a new record in 1977, when a re-engined aircraft used smart tactics to reach more than 115,000ft in altitude with a 1 tonne payload, thanks to a zoom climb. While the attempt would cause the engines to flame out, requiring a ballistic trajectory thanks to inertia, it’s still a superb effort.

Not a bad effort for an aircraft that was designed in the days before miniature electronics and high-performance computers.

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