The Story of Indian Air Force MiG-25 'RB' over Islamabad, Pakistan.
This is the story of the fastest, highest flying aircraft to ever don the tri-colour roundel of the Indian Air Force (IAF). It is dedicated to the men of Nos 102 Squadron 'Trisonics' who flew and maintained these big beautiful birds.
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| The Sukhoi Su-30MKI IAF's mainstay fighter with the Mig-25. |
India aquired 12 Mig-25 Foxbats fron the Soviet Union in the 80's. Of the 12 Foxbats, 10 are MiG-25R and 2 MiG-25U(trainers), they form the No.102 Trisonics Squadron in Bakshi-ka-Talab (Bareilly). In 1987, when there was a confrontation between the Pakistani and Indian armed forces, there were some gaps in the Indian intelligence on the location of Pakistan's armoured division and southern strategic reserve.
In May 1997, an Indian Air Force Mig-25 reconnaisance aircraft made headlines after it was detected in Pakistani Airspace.
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| Artistic impression of Mig-25 over Islamabad by Saurav Chordia |
IAF Mikoyan MiG-25RB reconnaissance aircraft created a furore when the pilot flew faster than Mach 2 over Islamabad following a reconnaissance mission into Pakistan airspace. The Foxbat broke the sound barrier while flying at an altitude of around 65,000 feet over Islamabad to pique the Pakistanis where otherwise the mission would have remained covert at least to the general public. The sonic boom was heard through most of Islamabad and created quite a ripple. The Pakistan Government considered the breaking of the sound barrier as deliberate act to make the point that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had no aircraft in its inventory which can come close to the cruising height of the MiG-25. The PAF to their credit did scramble their F-16s to intercept our cheerful intruder but to no avail. The F-16 goes up to only 55,000' and by the time the F-16s would get up to that altitude the MiG-25 could easily be 125 kms away even at its cruise speed. To the observer on the ground a sonic boom sounds like a loud repeated thunder clap you normally associate with a thunder storm.
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| IAF pilots flying the Mig-25 wore pressure suits to deal with the altitudes. One of the camera portholes can be seen on the right. |
The Pakistani airforce later issued a statement that an Indian MIG-25 had violated its air space and they either could not, would not, intercept it. Pakistani Foreign minister Gohar Ayub Khan said that the airspace violation by an Indian Mig-25 fighter jet could not be repulsed, because Pakistan did not have any aircraft or missile or other defence capability to intercept aircrafts at 72,000 feet. Pakistan armed forces alleged that the aircraft was photographing very sensitive sites. They used this as an excuse to lobby for a hike in the defence budget. Questions were raised in Parliament, India said the intrusion into Pakistani airspace was accidental. This incident highlighted the fact that Pakistan has nothing in its inventory that can shoot down the Foxbat.
