This Jet Terrified the West: The MiG-25 Foxbat

The MIG 25 was an interceptor built to chase nuclear bombers during a nuclear war not to dogfight fighter planes. It was built to get high fast and had vacuum tubes instead off microchips because tubes can resist and EMP from a nuclear explosion. It was a doomsday fighter.

These illustrating animations are getting better and better.

I’m still staggered by the sheer size of this aircraft. It is ENORMOUS.

The US assumed the MiG-25 was meant for dogfighting, while in reality it was meant to hunt high-altitude bombers that never even were.

Fun fact: the Japanese government billed the Soviet Union $40,000 for the shipping fees and airfield damage when negotiating the return of the plane

If someone said this was a IMAX documentary with a massive budget, I would totally believe them, this is awesome

The Foxbat and the Eagle are perfect examples of why a good intelligence agency is a must for any country.

The Valkyririe was a mastyery of engineering. The Foxbat was the the monstrous counterpart. Those engines. That payload. What an achievement. Phenomenal engineering.

Soviet-era brute force approach to everything is incredible to think about. Everything they did was brutal, overbuilt, and designed to be made quickly, cheaply, and easily maintained or replaced. I remember reading a story of American pilots in shock at a Russian airforce base, as they saw worked uses sled hammers to beat the ice off the fighter jet wings. The Russian pilots then jumped in and took off as if nothing happened.

US: plans to build the Valkyrie Soviet: builds incredible numbers of single-purpose high-performence Interceptors US: cancels the Valkyrie Soviet: you moth....

Having grown up when the Foxbat was still a mystery and could only be seen in one or two grainy photographs this plane still gives me goosebumps 😳

As a Mig 25 myself, I appreciate this shout out

In the words of the timeless Discovery Wings on the MiG-25: “The design of the MiG-25 was directed entirely at achieving high speed and high altitude. It was not meant to be maneuverable. It was not meant to have good low speed performance. It was simply meant to travel through the air as fast as Soviet ingenuity could make it go.”

Being an engineer myself, I can only imagine the anguish of the Soviet engineers and scientists when they would have realized that their years of calculations and iterations were compromised by a defector o.O

Never the less, it was a beautiful jet, a masterpiece of ingenuity.

I was lucky to sit in one of these planes wen I was 5-6 years old,there was 3 of these in my hometown air base back in the day… you guys cannot understand from this video how large that plane is , a grown man can walk straight into the intake of the engine.great video man , thank u

Good on you for doing your research and showing that the Valkyrie was the catalyst of MiG-25's inception. A lot of people erroneously attribute it to the SR-71.

I actually have the plastic scale model kit of the MiG-25, bought around 1980 & put together in that same time frame & I still have it to this day. I don't remember the kit maker brand, I might have to research that since I probably don't have the kit box of it anymore. I have a few other jet fighter scale kits, including the F-104 Starfighter & F-4 Phantom, again all of these built back then 4 decades ago, including having kept the cardboard kit boxes but I think I probably don't have the box for the MiG, I would have to look around in my closets.

This jet was so Legendary that it's still relevant today. What a monster & masterpiece of engineering 💥

We don’t care about how frequently you post, just keep making great content like this. We’ll always be there to watch it