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| The Foxhound made its maiden flight in September 1975 and officially entered service with the Soviet PVO |
Russia's MiG-31 Foxhoud stealth fighter jet is an aircraft that has super fast power. When the MiG-25 “Foxbat” entered service with the Soviet Union in 1970, it left NATO air power planners much to worry about.
The Foxbat was the fastest interceptor in the world at the time, and a constant fear of the unknown flew alongside it. However, most of those fears vanished after the defection of MiG-25 pilot Lieutenant Viktor Belenko in 1976.
Belenko helps dispel the aura of mystery that surrounds this high-speed plane. But the Soviet war machine didn't let Belenko's defection deter them from working on the concept. Thus was born the MiG-31 "Foxhound".
From Foxbat to Foxhound
The Foxhound made its maiden flight in September 1975 and officially entered service with the Soviet PVO (voyska protivovozdushnoy oborony, or Anti-Air Defense Forces) in 1981.
The MiG-31 bears a striking cosmetic resemblance to the MiG-25, which may explain at least in part why NATO retained the "Fox" part when assigning its codename to successor aircraft. However, look beneath the surface and you'll find the Foxhound is equipped with state-of-the-art digital avionics that its older foxy siblings don't have.
For one thing, the MiG-31 was the first Soviet fighter to have true look-down/shoot-down capability, thanks to its phased array radar. The Soviet Union's previous combat radar had a tendency to collide with chaos on the ground.
In addition, the Foxhound can work efficiently in all weather conditions while complying with visual flight rules and instrument flight rules, day and night.
Yet another improvement is the new aircraft's extended range, which increases to 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) on initial takeoff, and is further supported to 3,400 miles (5,400 kilometers) with one aerial refueling.
In contrast, the gas-guzzling Foxbat bears the curse over relatively short distances: 1,160 miles (1,860 kilometers) at Mach 0.9 and 1,013 miles (1,630 kilometers) while cruising at Mach 2.35. This underscores how lucky the aforementioned Belenko was to escape from Vladivostok to Hokkaido, Japan.
In retrospect, perhaps NATO should have named the MiG-25 the “Cheetah.” It can chase its prey at incredible speed, but only for short distances. Foxhound pilots also enjoy a reduced probability of "failure to communicate".
As my 1945 colleague Caleb Larson explained, “The MiG-31s can network with other aircraft in their sortie, relaying information about the location of enemy aircraft and thus covering a much wider area than groups of aircraft that do not have a network.”
Flying Foxhound Dog
Five hundred and nineteen Foxhounds have been produced so far, 370 of which were delivered to the Russian Air Force and 30 are in service with the Kazakh air force.
Reported by JakBarNews.com from 19fortyfive.com, in July 2020, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced its intention to invest in a modernization and life extension program for its MiG-31 fleet. MiG-31 customers outside the former Soviet republics are very few.
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| MiG-31 Foxhoud |
In 1992, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the cash-strapped post-Soviet Russian arms industry offered the Mig-31 to Finland, but Finland turned it down. Meanwhile, Syria ordered eight MiG-31E airframes for its own air force in 2007, but the order was suspended in May 2007.
Six of these MiGs may or may not have been delivered to Syria by August 2015, depending on whether you choose to believe. What is not disputed is that Russia itself has deployed MiG-31s on missions in Syria. In addition, the Foxhound has "bleeded" in what Vladimir Putin called special military operations in Ukraine.
On 18 March, the MiG-31K variant launched an attack on a Ukrainian arms depot near the Polish border, apparently using the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missile. On April 26, Ukraine managed to shoot down a Foxhound with a British-made Starstreak missile.
MiG-31 Foxhoud Specification
General characteristics
- Crew: Two (pilot and weapons systems officer)
- Length: 22.69 m (74 ft 5 in)
- Wingspan : 13.46 m (44 ft 2 in)
- Height: 6.15 m (20 ft 2 in)
- Wing area : 61.6 m² (663 ft²)
- Empty weight t: 21,820 kg (48,100 lb)
- Payload weight: 41,000 kg (90,400 lb)
- Max. takeoff weight: 46,200 kg (101,900 lb)
- Power Station : 2 × Soloviev D-30F6 afterburning turbofan
- Dry thrust : 93 kN (20,900 lbf) each
- Thrust with afterburner: 152 kN (34.172 lbf) each
Armament
- 1× GSh-6-23 23 mm gun with 260 rounds.
- Airframe recesses for 4× R-33 (AA-9 'Amos') (or only for MiG-31M/BM 6× R-37 (AA-X-13 'Arrow') long-range air-to-air missiles)
4 underwing posts for combination:
- 2× R-40TD1 (AA-6 'Acrid') medium range missiles, and [Clarification needed]
- 4× R-60 (AA-8 'Aphid')
- 4× R-73 (AA-11 'Archer') short-range IR missile,
- 4× R-77 medium-range missile (AA-12 'Adder').
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