Posted on 09/05/2016 11:21:26 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Meanwhile, the SR-71 was just hitting its stride, begging for more.
Just, wow!
But wouldn’t it mean that since avionics don’t need to act as radio they can be shielded with faraday cages and transistors are still better than vacuum tubes?
You didn’t say ‘avionics’. IIRC you said ‘radio’.
The problem with EMP is that it is the closest natural substitute for a theoretical ‘impulse’. A pulse of zero length at some magnitude. Since the time and frequency domains are Fourier transform pairs, an impulse in time translates to a signal at all frequencies. And, with an impulse (or very short pulse) at some fantastic magnitude (like in an EMP) would produce an extremely broadband set of signals at very, very high EM field strength. It is this broad banded high field strength that is so difficult to protect electronic devices from.
I don’t know about ‘avionics’ of all types. One that uses an antenna would still be vulnerable. Those that depended on gravity, pressure, or gyroscopic action like a Ring Laser Gyro or some such, magnetic, etc. might not be affected as much.
It’s a difficult problem for any electronics, really. I’d think that to be able to protect from EMPs, one would really have to know about the time and frequency characteristics of EMPs in depth to start with.
ping
Great synopsis, thanks!
As an aside. I read, as a child, a Reader’s Digest version of this story.
Supposedly there was a self destruct button so as to destroy the cockpit in case of capture.
Pilots were assured there was a timer.
There wasn’t. It was directly connected to a stick of dynamite, according to the story.
As I remember in Belenko’s book flathead screws were not used behind the wing. Behind the wing round headed screws would not interfere with the aircrafts speed. It tells us how backward they are. Belenko is now 60 or 70. With all the Russians now living here he must feel at home more. Still, he better not tell anyone who he is.
You have to admit, the Soviets made some really cool looking military hardware.
Yeah, the Soviets/Russians seem to “like” primitive but usually there is a method behind their madness.
Can’t afford to build an entire MiG-25 out of titanium? Fine, just put the titanium where it is really needed along the leading edges of the flying surfaces and high temperature areas of the fuselage. Make the rest of the aircraft out of sheet steel. Oh, and don’t bother to recess the rivets in turbulent airflow areas where it doesn’t matter.
Can’t match Western semiconductor performance? Fine, reengineer the old vacuum tube technology to perform at previously out-of-reach levels.
I have read that Soviet/Russian aircraft landing gear is as rugged as it is because their military runways, taxiways, and parking areas are pretty uneven due to being constructed with precast reinforced concrete blocks. Yeah, except it also makes repairing damage after an attack a heck of a lot easier when they are built that way.
Have problems with the plumbing freezing during the colder months of the year in north-of-the-Arctic Circle Murmansk? (Which is probably darn near all year round.) Don’t want to pay for heating the plumbing out at the flight line ready shack? Fine, install a privy and periodically clean it out.
Primitive! Smelly! Cold and uncomfortable! What! Are you a Klingon ...er, Russian or not?
BTW, 92 was just after the fall of the USSR. If you can disclose it, why were you on the flight line in Murmansk?
Uhhhh.... you sure you got that right?
Most radar on the ground will kill you. Not just that one.
[ “if you can see it before it sees you,” you will die.]
Yeah, that is wrong. What he meant to say was:
“if you can see it before it sees you,” IT will die.”
Like the SR-71, the XB-70 was a Mach 3-capable aircraft. It's pretty tough to catch, much less shoot down a Mach-3 airplane with another Mach-3 airplane, or even a Mach-5 missile. That's why the SR-71 needs no defensive systems. It's defense is its speed and altitude.
Until the US got their hands on this MiG-25, they were unsure of its capabilities. It was only after they got this one that they learned of its shortcomings.
Uhhhh.... you sure you got that right?
The one seen dies. Stupid fingers got me again. :)
As a fighter the Foxbat was not a good fighter (although an Iraqi Foxbat managed to shoot down a USN F-18 during the Gulf War, ironically with the same AA-6 I was referring to), and thus as a fighter it has many short comings. But as an interceptor it had its strengths. This was very similar to the USAF's Fighter-Interceptor version of the SR-71 Blackbird, the YF-12, which could also fly very fast but had a very wide turning radius. That plane had a similar purpose to the Foxbat, in that it would blaze across the skies as fast as possible, intercept incoming Soviet bombers as far away from their intended targets, launch its four Falcon (nuclear tipped) air to air missiles, and hopefully destroy all of the bombers. The pilots of the YF-12, had it gone into serial production and the USA and USSR gone to war, would also have had to make their own decision on how they would die as they would also not have been landing at home base to go to their families for dinner. Anyway, same strategy just different planes and missiles. The Foxbat was a poor fighter, but the same shortcomings that made it a poor fighter made it a good interceptor against incoming bomber formations that needed to be intercepted as far away as possible.
Yes, I'm familiar with the concept of interception. Per the pilot of this thread, such a thing was not possible with the MiG-25. As Belenko and Graham both state below the AA missiles are not effective at the cruising altitude of the SR-71 or the XB-70 because of the thin air.
Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko, who defected to Japan in a MiG-25 on Dec. 6, 1976, confirmed it in its “MiG Pilot” book.
"American reconnaissance planes, SR-71s, were prowling off the coast, staying outside Soviet airspace by photographing terrain hundreds of miles inland with side – angle cameras. They taunted and toyed with the MiG-25s sent up to intercept them, scooting up to altitudes the Soviet planes could not reach, and circling leisurely above them or dashing off at speeds the Russians could not match," Belenko explained.
However, according to the Mig pilot, Russians tried to intercept and shoot down a Blackbrid, but they always failed this task: "[The Soviets] had a master plan to intercept an SR-71 by positioning a MiG-25 in front of it and one below it, and when the SR-71 passed they would fire missiles. But it never occurred. Soviet computers were very primitive, and there is no way that mission can be accomplished."
"First of all, the SR-71 flies too high and too fast. The MiG-25 cannot reach it or catch it. Secondly…the missiles are useless above 27,000 meters [88,000 feet], and as you know, the SR-71 cruises much higher. But even if we could reach it, our missiles lack the velocity to overtake the SR-71 if they are fired in a tail chase. And if they are fired head-on, the guidance systems cannot adjust quickly enough to the high closing speed".
Moreover, as recently told by the former Blackbird pilot Col. Richard H. Graham in his book "SR-71 The Complete Illustrated History of THE BLACKBIRD The World’s Highest , Fastest Plane", Belenko’s missiles would have not worked because “Most air- to-air missiles are optimized to maneuver in the thicker air below around 30,000 feet in order to shoot down an enemy plane. Firing at the SR-71, cruising at 75,000 feet, the air is so thin that any maneuvering capability of the missile is practically nonexistent.”
Yes, this is an excellent autobiography by Belenko. Worth reading not only as a profile in courage but also a statement about the decaying Soviet system many tears before it’s ultimate collapse.
You meant IT will die, didn't you?
Yes you did...
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