The Stolen MiG-25 “Foxbat“ and Viktor Belenko’s Defection of 1976

On the 6th of September 1976, a fighter-pilot of the Soviet Union did the unthinkable. During a training mission near the Siberian airbase Chuguyevka, near Vladivostok, USSR pilot Viktor Belenko, flying his Mikoyan-Gurevich MIG-25, nicknamed “Foxbat”, suddenly dove below radar detection elevation, turned off his radio and sped towards Japan as fast as he could. Consider supporting HoH: ►Patreon: ►Paypal: My videos tend to get arbitrarily demonetized. That is why I decided to open up a Patreon where people can support the channel. If you decide to pledge as little as 1$/month you will gain access to a monthly series exclusive to my Patrons! In Japan, the aircraft popped up on radar screens after not too long. But due to its speed, before any action could be taken against this potentially hostile intruder, Belenko had already reached the airfield of Hakodate. Rapidly approaching the airport his MiG-25 only had 30 seconds of fuel remaining, and as such Belenko again dove full-speed towards the airfield. During his descent, he narrowly escaped a collision with a Japanese passenger plane, reached the landing strip at a speed that was way too high, knocked over two large antennas on the airfield and with squeaking brakes finally managed to come to a standstill after 250 metres. Viktor Belenko had officially defected to the West. My Twitter: Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:38 Diplomatic Tensions 7:06 Compensation Watch my documentary series: ►History of Prussia playlist: ►End of Empire - Downfall of the Qing Dynasty playlist: ►World War 2 playlist: ►Hitler’s Spies playlist: The content of this video covers events, people or concepts via a lecture-style presentation that is educational and historical in nature. Every video is original content by House of History. The events relating to conflict in this video are portrayed in their historical context without either value judgment or an ideological message attached to it. There is no intent to shock, upset or disgust. The goal of my channel is to make interesting lecture-style videos, no more, no less. Thank you for taking the time to check out House of History, I hope you will find the films informative, interesting and enjoyable! The information about the aircraft the U.S. published was that it was a ‘thing from the past’ designed with ‘crude technology’. And that wasn’t too wrong, although a bit exaggerated. The US had indeed overestimated the capabilities of the MiG-25 by a longshot, with US Defence Secretary Schlesinger once stating that the “MiG -25 is the only aircraft scaring all the world.” This conviction stemmed from the Soviets flying MiG-25s over Israel without being intercepted during the Yom Kippur war. Upon inspection, it became clear the aircraft indeed was easy to repair and could suffer intense heat and damage due to its steel airframe. Its radar had two wavebands, which meant it could not be jammed, something the US was eager to copy. Nevertheless, its radar technology was considered outdated. Belenko himself revealed a significant amount of information as well. For example, he explained that the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, a long-range high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft caused enormous frustration within the USSR airforce. It was assumed the MiG-25 was the only soviet aircraft that could intercept the blackbird. The Blackbird would fly at an incredible speed and high altitude on reconnaissance missions, and although the Soviet airforce apparently tried to shoot one Blackbird down by using multiple MiG-25s, the plane simply was too fast for both the MiG-25s and its missiles. If you have any feedback, questions or criticism feel free to leave a comment. Your opinion truly aids me in improving the content of the channel! If you have a question, feel free to leave a comment and I will either write a reply, answer your question in a Q&A video, or make an entire video about it! Sources: Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons #HouseofHistory #History #ColdWar