Foxbat under dissection

Press, 16 September 1976, Page 20

Foxbat under dissection

From the “Economist,” London

Japanese and American specialists are happily dissecting the Mig-25 (Foxbat) that a defecting Russian pilot landed at Hakodate in northern Japan. -Although the Foxbat has been around since 1965, it has always been a bit of a mystery; there are not many , of them and they usually fly too high (80,000 ft to ■ be seen and too fast (up to three times the speed of sound) to be shadowed. The Foxbat has been called, wrongly, the best interceptor, and, rightly, the highest flying and fastest combat aeroplane in the world. <

The experts probing the machine will have two main aims. First, they want to learn all about the Foxbat’s precise characteristics in order to design the weapons and tactics that will best counter it.

* They will scrutinise its radar and other detection systems; the computer that controls its firing Of guided missiles at other aircraft; its devices for jamming or confusing its enemy’s electronics; its weapons and equipment for carrying them; the airframe structure and controls, which should reveal, its manoeuvrability (generally believed to be relatively poor); and its engines and fuel system, which will reveal its range at various altitudesSecond, they will «tudy

the technology involved; this will help them to estimate the capabilities of other Soviet aircraft, and may help in the updating of Western technology too. ’ Relevant here are the engine and afterburner design; the method of varying the air inlets to the engines to compensate for altitude changes; the metal — presumably titanium alloys — used in the structure; the computer technology, the electronics circuitry, and the system of actuating the manoeuvring control surface.

Not the least interesting items will be the tiny serial numbers and factory markings on individual parts that may tell trained men where and when they were made and how many of them.