[Video] Flying at treetop altitude with a Russian Mach 3 MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor

August 31, 2014 Russia, Troubled Areas
David Cenciotti

Awesome video of the MiG-25 Foxbat flying at very high speed and ultra low altitude some years ago in Russia.

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 is a Soviet-era supersonic interceptor equipped with a powerful radar, four air-to-air missiles and a top speed of Mach 3.

The PD was an improved variant of the aircraft introduced at the end of the 1970s with R-15BD-300 engines and new N-005 Saphir-25 (RP-25M) Pulse-Doppler radar.

Designated Foxbat-E by NATO, these fast fighter planes conducted ultra-low level training missions (like those flown today by the Russian Air Force jets); the following video, with footage filmed in various periods, from the end of the 1980s to the end of the 1990s, shows some treetop flying, aerobatics and formation flying.

Some MiG-25RBs, reconnaissance-bomber derivative of MiG-25R, a high-altitude daylight reconnaissance aircraft, are believed to be still in service with the Russian Air Force.

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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7 Comments

  1. So why is that cockpit panel painted in ‘surgical-scrub’ green? It seems an odd color for military hardware.

      • IB is correct. It’s a bluegreen color. A quick Google will show you the Russians have been painting their cockpits that oddball color for over half a century.

  3. Russian attitude indicators (artificial horizon) are such a silly design compared to the West.

  5. David, the truth is that the MiG-25/31 is not one of the fastest fighters. They are the fastest combat aircraft to ever enter service and the only ones able to routinely fly at M2.8 with external stores. They cannot “dogfight at those speeds”. Nobody can. It is all about straight line flying (interceptions) or huge radius, low g, turns. That’s why the YF-12 was not viable; it was limited to about 1.5g maneouvering.
    The turquoise colored cockpits are used because, psychologically, they provide the most relaxing and “wide open” (anti claustrophobic) environment for IFR and long endurance flights day or night.
    The attitude indicator is configured to follow the logic of the human brain. For this, the horizon is always horizontal (as in real life) and the small airplane banks and turns, again as in real life. This is the opposite of the western indicators, where tha airplane is fixed and the horizon rotates. The Soviet design (remember, Russian and Soviet are not the same thing) is more helpful in cases of vertigo or disorientation.
    If you look well, you will notice that most Soviet/Russian instrument panels have a long vertical white stripe running down its center.
    This is an extremely smart and simple life saver. Maybe some commenters can guess how it works!

    Keep the good work!

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