THE SECRET IAF JET THAT BUZZED ISLAMABAD

In the year 2019, Indian Airforce conducted strike missions deep inside enemy territory which was undoubtedly one of the most daring operation of Indian military aviation which gave a strong message to deserving ones but IAF had done many other covert operations which were never declassified, one such was done in May 1997 which created chaos in Islamabad.

Back in 80s there were no modern satellites which are now being used for communication cum surveillance in those days the superpower countries developed some secret spying aircrafts capable of flying beyond mach 3, one such was Mig 25 (NATO reporting name Foxbat) which was built primarly for recce missions.

India had fought 3 major wars and was aware of fast developing military technologies all over the world so a secret deal was made between New Delhi and Moscow and in August 1981 six Mig-25RBKs (single seat reconnaissance bomber) and two Mig-25RUs (double seat trainer) were brought in dismantled condition in Antonovs and entered in service under No.102 Squadron the ''Trisonics'' at secret airbase.

SHATTERING THE ISLAMABAD -

In May 1997, a Mig25R entered pakistani airspace for one of the many reconnaissance missions IAF conducted but unlike other missions this time the pilot flying at an altitude of 20,000 meters (65,000 feet) broke the sound barrier as he crossed 3,000 km/h which resulted in a terrifying loud thunderous sound which was mistaken for a massive blast by the people down on earth and created a chaos in Islamabad, the pakistani radar picked suspicious activity and scrambled their F-16s but they had no chance against the Foxbat who was flying at 50km/h even faster than a bullet despite having a fully-loaded weight of 40 tonnes .

Now the question arises why did the pilot did that ? Majority believes that the IAF ace pilot sent the sonic boom as he wanted to remind that pakisatani airforce had no equal in its inventory that could come close to Indian ones as also claimed by pakistani government/military which seems very genuine but as India denied that moment and never officially made any statement no one knows actual reason i personally do believe that may be the intention was to deliver a strong warning to pakistan for some secret diplomatic or other defense related reason, , may be India did it to pressurize the pakistanis by showing them their limit.

HOW DID THE BEAST CAME IN EXISTENCE -

It was in 1959 when the Soviets started working on a secret new interceptor as they has recently learned about the secret American A-12 reconnaissance aircrafts which were capable of touching Mach 3. It was designed by the famous soviet designer Mikhail Gurevich and was the last one he worked on before his retirement. In early possible layouts one had engine configuration similar to English Electric Lightning, with two engines stacked vertically but was rejected as it would have resulted in a very tall aircraft which would be not easy for ground crew as it complicates the maintenance so the final layout had engines located side by side similar to Mig-19.

The first prototype flew on 9 september 1964 and entered in service in 1970. It had an operational speed of mach 2.35 (2500km/h) and could go upto mach 3.2 but was restricted to mach 2.83 (3000km/h) as crossing it could cause damage beyond repair due to engine overheating. It could fly upto an altitude of 27 km (89,000 feet) with climb rate of 208 m/s (40,900 ft/min) .

It was built primarily of stainless steel although titanium was considered more ideal but had problem of cracks in welded structures with thin walls and also was expensive so it was constructed with 80% Nickel-Alloy, 11% Aluminium and 9% Titanium were most of welding was done by hand.

Initially it had TL-25 Smerch-A radar which had limitations against low flying targets but after a soviet pilot namely Lt. Viktor Belenko defected to Japan with his brand new Mig-25 where the aircraft was dismantled and deeply analyzed by US and allies and after soviet protests they returned it after 67 days by a ship in pieces, so after this incident many changes were made in other Foxbats in service which resulted in upgradation of radar with much more advance pulse-doppler radar 'Sapphire-25' system.

AVIATION RECORDS OF THE FOXBAT -

Mig-25 also set many world records of which some still stand unbroken, some of them are

On 4 june 1973, Boris A. Orlov climbed to 20,000 metres in just 2 min 49.8 sec and same day another pilot Pyotr M. Ostapenko did two other records by reaching 25,000 metres in 3 min 12.6 sec and 30,000 metres in 4 min 3.86 sec.

On 25 july 1973 chief test pilot Aleksandr Vasilyevich Fedotov reached an altitude of 35,230 metres with 1,000 kg payload and 36,240 metres (118,900 feet) with no payload and set an absolute world record, the foxbat became the first aircraft to go higher than 35,000 metres and at apex the speed dropped to 75 km/hr as the engine flamed out due to thin air.

On 31 july 1977 a Mig-25 RB re-engined with more powerful R15BF2-300 set an absolute record by reaching 37,650 metres (123,520 feet) on its own power in a zoom climb by chief test pilot Fetodov.

In all 29 records were claimed, of which 7 were all time world record and some still stand unbroken.

FOXBAT IN INDIAN AIRFORCE -

Indian Airforce Foxbats had single seater reconnaissance bomber version with Kub-3K ELNIT system (NATO codename Foxbat-D), ELNIT stands for electronic signal intelligence and is used for intelligence gathering by electronic sensors. It can detect ships and aircrafts by their radar and other electromagnetic radiations. No. 102 squadron which was transferred to No. 35 Squadron ''Rapiers'' operated the Foxbat from the Trishul Airbase in Bareilly.

Mig-25 with tail number KP351 is believed to be first one inducted in IAF, the Indian Foxbats were fitted with powerful 1200 mm A-70M cameras which could check on check on Pakistani and Tibetan territories while flying above Punjab and Kashmir.

In 1995 one of the most experienced pilots flew a Mig-25 R into stratosphere to capture some crystal clear photographs of solar eclipse and at an altitude of 25,000 metres (82,000 feet) successfully filmed the diamond ring of the eclipse for 1 min 57 seconds, they also captured the starburst. One of the two pilots who flew this mission was Air Vice Marshal Sumit Mukherjee himself.

THE RETIREMENT -

On 1 may 2006, a simple phasing out ceremony of the Foxbats was held at Bareilley Airbase which was presided by the then COAS Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi. Wing Commander Alok Chauhan, an ex-Foxbat pilot said that, ''Even most of the IAF have never seen that airbase and the aircraft'', he also added that they could still push the Foxbats for another 2-3 years but the aircraft had already 3 life extensions and it was prudent to retire them.

The main reasons for retiring the Foxbats after a glorious service of 25 years were lack of spare parts which restricted the capabilities and complicated the maintainance of the aircraft, also as India's acquisition of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and Satellite imagery proved more easy and lethal against the Foxbats which eventually led to their retirement.

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