Faster than fairies, faster than missiles. Flying 30km above the earth in the stratosphere at nearly 3 mach (mach is the speed of sound), there was no missile that could shoot her down. She could see everything she wanted to, without being seen. The all-seeing AWACS dreaded her, for she flew far above its reach and could shoot it on the back.
She was invisible and invincible. She was MiG-25.
For long, her enemies did not even know her name. They thought she was MiG-23's new version, and even wrote so in secret despatches and books. Then they nicknamed her Foxbat. Who knows, many a UFO sighting in the Californian skies could be a MiG-25, still the world's fastest (save the American SR-71, which has been grounded), the highest-flying and the least photographed aircraft ever. The finest child of Soviet cold war ingenuity, she belongs to the world of legends and aviation folklore.
But now, after nearly two decades of silent service—often without a mention in the official despatch—the Indian Air Force (IAF) is bidding goodbye to MiG-25s. The spares are scarce—even her original makers do not have them. Satellite imagery is replacing her cameras, another reason for the grounding.
By the time she had joined the IAF's Bareilly-based 102 squadron, in 1981, the MiG-25 had already become the world's most enigmatic plane. Flying her needed a test-pilot's skill—mere fighter pilots were no match.
Back to history: NATO air attaches watching the 1967 Air Force Day ceremony at Domodedovo airport outside Moscow were intrigued by the prototype of a twin-engine fighter plane parked amid a clutch of puny MiG-21s. None of them, all experienced air force officers, had ever seen such a huge jet-fighter. With a wingspan of 43 feet, length of 71 feet, and a height of 21 feet, she could not be concealed.
By evening, air intelligence officers in NATO capitals were exchanging secret notes. They did not know what sort of a plane the commies were making. They called her MiG-23 and nicknamed her Foxbat, hardly knowing that MiG-23 was just a step-sister of the famed MiG-21.
For the next many years, the Foxbat flew all over the European and American stratosphere but no one got wiser about her. Another myth was born: she was powered by a modified rocket engine, or a cruise missile engine.
One day in 1972, two Foxbats, piloted by Russians, took off from Egypt and flew at 2.5 mach over Sharm el Sheikh, teasing Israeli radars. The Israeli Air Force scrambled their best Phantoms, but even the radar blips were gone in no time. The event came to be recorded as one involving MiG-23s.
NATO commanders soon realised it was not the MiG-23 but one they had not heard of. In September 1976, they got a chance to dissect her and have a close look.
Victor Belenco, a defecting Soviet fighter pilot, burst into Japanese airspace on a Foxbat with fuel for just 60 seconds. He claimed Soviet fighters were on his tail. NATO engineers who rushed in ripped her apart and were amazed: parts were hand-weld. There was nickel in them instead of stainless steel. The best of NATO brains could not make out what they were looking at. Why, they could not even put them back. So, when 'angry' Moscow demanded their plane back, it had to be packed in containers and airlifted. (There are many who believe that the Soviets had engineered Belenco's defection to overawe the west with their superior technology.)
Belenco told his American hosts that Soviet commanders never allowed Foxbat pilots to fly her at speeds less than 2.5 mach. NATO pilots had never seen her because she mostly flew more than 24km above the earth.
A few years later, a few Foxbats joined the IAF where men like Yuri, now a well-known radio jockey and managing director of FM radio company Green Channel, flew it.
Yuri, or Wing Commander Yogesh Suri, had already been a test pilot when he was sent to fly the superplane. "We reached Bareilly dying to have a look at the plane," he said. "We, pilots of supersonic fighters, behaved like children, threw suitcases into rooms and ran out to see the legend. The first flight had to be put off due to rains. Disappointed, we went round and round the plane in sheer awe. Even the cockpit ladder amazed us. So tall!"
Everything about the plane was out of the ordinary. "The commanding officer of the squadron was a group captain, two ranks above the usual squadron leader," said Yuri. "And squadron leaders made the squadron!"
Flying her, Yuri realised that the plane's performance exceeded the legends about it. "The sheer power of that climb into the stratosphere at mach 3! She alone could do it," he said. "And up there, we flew amid the stars. It's all black around, as in space. The cockpit walls are so high that you don't see the earth below. You feel alone, but peaceful. No other plane can give you that feeling. From Jodhpur to Adhampur, I have flown her in 30 minutes." Had luck favoured, Yuri could have been an astronaut instead of Rakesh Sharma: he was one of the four who had been trained to go to space.
Foxbat pilots have only one regret: they get no combat experience. There are no dogfights, no manoeuvres, for the plane does not encounter an enemy at that speed and height.
The IAF has its own Foxbat lore. In the late 1980s, the IAF reportedly sought, but was denied, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's permission to fly over Islamabad. But as a serving air commander put it, "Who knows whether we flew or not? Even if we had, no one would have known."
In May 1997, a deafening noise rocked Islamabad. One Indian pilot was flying over the city when he broke the sound barrier at 65,000 feet. The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) first thought of scrambling their F-16s, then thought the better of it. For, no plane could reach anywhere near a Foxbat. PAF still believes that the IAF's Foxbat pilot deliberately broke the sound barrier to rub it into PAF minds that they had nothing that could get close to a MiG-25.
The MiG-25s embarrassed the US and British air forces in the 1991 Gulf war. In one incident, as wave after wave of F-14s and F-15s entered Iraqi airspace, escorted by A-6 and A-7 fighters, one Iraqi Foxbat took to the air, shot down an F-18, shot a missile at an A-6 and whizzed past another. Foxbats also saved the MiG-29s, which Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sent to Iran for safekeeping before the war broke out. The MiG-29s flew to safety while a few Foxbats engaged USAF's F-15s which tried to intercept the fleeing planes. The F-15s shot more than half a dozen missiles at the Foxbats, but the latter outflew all of them.
The closest look the Indian public got of her was when a Foxbat crashed near Pathankot in 1998 due to a technical defect. Now, some of the grounded aircraft may be exhibited in museums.
MiG-25 may have flown into history. But her pilots will remember the sense of being invisible she gave them. Forever.
