COMMENTS ON SOVIET AEROSPACE ARTICLE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FOXBAT SUCCESSOR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75B00380R000100050148-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 23, 2003
• Sequence Number: 148
• Publication Date: January 18, 1973
• Content Type: MEMO

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Approved Fo
r Release 2006/09/25: CIA-RDP75
18 January 1973
MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Comments on Soviet Aerospace Article on
the Development of a Foxbat Successor
1. An article in the 15 January issue of Soviet
Aerospace reports that the Soviets have developed a
successor to the Foxbat fighter aircraft. There is
no intelligence information supporting this con-
tention. In addition, the article contains many
inaccuracies and is generally misleading.
2. The Foxbat is a twin engine, all-weather
interceptor designed by the A. I. Mikoyan design team.
The Soviets have designated the Foxbat as the MIG-25--
not the MIG-23 as stated in Soviet Aerospace. In
combat operations the Foxbat is capable of speeds of
about Mach 3 and altitudes of about 80,000 feet. The
Foxbat has been produced in interceptor and reconnais-
sance models, and possibly in an attack version. The
interceptor carries four air-to-air missiles, but the
aircraft is not equipped with a down-looking radar as
the article asserts.
3. The article erroneously states that the Fox-
bat's major limitations are its short range and high
fuel. consumption. Armed with four air-to-air missiles
and an external fuel tank, the Foxbat has a supersonic
combat radius of about 600 miles and subsonic combat
radius of some 1,100 miles. Both are greater than the
combat radius of any Soviet fighter other than the
TU-128 Fiddler.
4. The E-266 was one of the prototypes for the
Foxbat, rather than an advanced version of the fighter
as this article states. The E-266 set international
speed and altitude records in 1965.
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5. There is,no intelligence information suggesting
that a new MIG aircraft with "greater range, maneuver-
ability, operational diversity, and more advanced
weapons systems" than the Foxbat has been developed in
the USSR. Only two new fighter aircraft--neither
designed by Mikoyan--are being actively tested by the
Soviets. One is a fighter-bomber designed by Sukhoy
that is similar to the US F-lll. The other is a
Yakovlev-designed vertical take-off and landing air-
craft which is probably intended for use on a new
Soviet aircraft carrier which is under construction.
Neither fighter could be considered a successor to the
Foxbat.
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