Word: mig
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When a Russian pilot flew a MiG-25 to northern Japan last month and asked for political asylum in the U.S., CIA Director George Bush hailed the defection as an "intelligence bonanza." According to euphoric Pentagon spokesmen, an examination of the plane and interrogation of the pilot would yield vital secrets about Soviet air-weapons technology. But U.S. experts who were dispatched to Japan for a three-week study of the aircraft have come to a different and surprising conclusion: the much-touted superplane brought to the West by Soviet Air Force 1st Lieut. Viktor Belenko is, in many respects...
Country Tinker. The plane turned out to be a crude, early version of the Foxbat, which the Russians designed 15 years ago to bring down the supersonic B-70, a U.S. bomber that never became operational. Belenko's MiG was equipped with obsolescent electronic targeting and radar systems. Its maximum range of 1,200 miles was short compared with the American F-4 Phantom fighter's 2,100 miles. Belenko's plane was also vastly inferior to the reconnaissance version of the Foxbat, which the U.S. has tracked over much longer ranges in the Middle East. Perhaps...
...Belenko's plane nonetheless had two immensely powerful Tumansky engines that are as advanced as anything made by General Electric or Rolls-Royce. U.S. experts were impressed by the engines' lubrication system and by the Soviets' highly sophisticated forging techniques. But one crucial element of the MiG-25 was missing: the four air-to-air missiles the plane ordinarily carries. Probably to increase his speed, the Soviet pilot had flown his plane to the West while on a training flight without the heavy weapons that experts need to calculate the Foxbat's true military capability. Belenko...
...Syrian onslaught seemed equally overwhelming. Lebanese rightist troops had attacked the town just ten days ago but the Palestinians had beaten them back. They had also mined the main road and lined it with sandbag barricades. The Syrians opened with barrages of rockets, sent in swarms of low-flying MIG fighters, then followed with tanks. Said one fedayeen who fled from a burning house: "They use their rockets like we use our guns. We fire 30 bullets and they fire 30 rockets." Palestinian radio broadcasts appealed to Arab nations to "halt the liquidation of the Palestinian revolution," but the Syrian...
Belenko told his American interrogators that at 80,000 ft. his jet could fly safely at only Mach 2.8 (1,850 m.p.h.), rather than the Mach 3.2 of prototype MIG-25s. Even at Mach 2.8, he complained, his engines overheated and the four air-to-air missiles slung under the wings vibrated dangerously. U.S. technicians have discovered that Soviet technology is surprisingly old-fashioned in many ways: the MIG-25's wrinkled wings were welded by hand rather than by machine, and rivets were not ground flush to reduce drag. Beyond that, the plane is so heavy...