On Dec. 14, a Russian Air Force MiG-31 Foxhound, possibly involved in a post-modernization test flight.crashed near Vladivostok on Dec. 14.
According to the Russian MoD, one of the engines failed but, until the exact reason of the failure will be found, all the 80 MiG-31 Foxhounds currently serving in the Russian Air Force were grounded.
Fortunately, both pilots survived and even managed to direct the plane towards an uninhabited area before ejecting.
Back in April a Foxhound from Kazakhstan also crashed – that time one of the crew members died and the other was wounded. The aircraft in Kazakhstan had undergone a general overhaul 4 months earlier.
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Since the Foxhound is one of the cornerstones of the Russian Air Defense system the issue is quite serious.
Mig-31 are currently being modernized in a way to provide operational capability at least until 2028. As we reported months ago, modernizing all of the Russian MiG-31s to BM standard, which includes new radar with a range of 320 km, new avionics and fire control system, would cost over 50 billion rubles.
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