He was among the highest-profile figures to defect from the Soviet Union at the peak of the Cold War. He brought with him the top-secret interceptor fighter jet MiG-25 ‘Foxbat’ from the USSR with him. The Soviet Pilot Lieutenant Viktor Ivanovich Belenk, who unraveled the MiG-25 for the West died at the age of 76 years in the US.
The Swan Song of the Soviet aircraft designer Mikhail Gurevich, MiG-25, code-named ‘Foxbat’ by NATO, was a super-fast and super high combat jet. Its unmatched supersonic speed and stratospheric reach had evoked fear in the western militaries for years.
Fables were spawned around the fighter jet that could climb the stratosphere (the second layer of the earth’s atmosphere) in a matter of few seconds and attain supersonic speeds. The pilots of the jet could see the earth’s curvature from up there. The jet’s capability was so unmatched that the flight of the MiG-25s earned the monikers of “Loneliness at Mach 3”.
The West was panicking over the regular reconnaissance flights by MiG‐25's over West Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway. According to NATO intelligence reports, there are 45 Foxbats in East Germany and Poland employed on such patrols.
Lieutenant Belenko was 29-years-old getting training on the MiG-25 supersonic interceptor jet. In September 1976, disillusioned after a personal setback, he flew on MiG-25 undetected to Japan and delivered the aircraft in exchange of asylum in the US. The New York Times reported that he went on to settle in the US and died on September 24 in a small town in Southern Illinois. His death came after a brief illness and was not widely reported at the time.
Belenko lived a low-profile life. He did make occasional appearances at air shows after the end of the Cold War. But he never sought to capitalize on his moment of international fame. “He lived the most private life,” his son Paul was quoted by the New York Times. “He flew under the radar, literally and figuratively.”
Belenko’s story still remains as one of the most intriguing tales of the Cold War. The aircraft’s spy satellite photos had caused panic in the Pentagon. A gigantic Soviet airplane with an engine intake equal to the size of small cars, huge wings indicated at maneuverability that even America’s McDonnell F-4 Phatom II could not achieve.
The aircraft was brought out in public for the first time in July 1967. It set some records that hitherto remain unbroken. It notched a speed of 1,852 mph, climbed to 98,425 feet in four minutes and 3.86 seconds and ultimately reached an absolute altitude record of 123,520 feet.
Such was the paranoia in the west around the Foxbat that as soon as the fighter jet went operational in 1970s, the US altered its battle plan. The US got a new generation of surface-to-air missiles in its inventory, no bombers were allowed towards Russia. The US retired B-58 Hustler and dropped the plans for the B-70.
‘Intelligence Bonanza’ as MiG-25 lands in Japan
Lieutenant Belenko was heartbroken as his wife was divorcing him. On September 6, 1976, he took off from the Sakharovka air base in Siberia along with two more aircraft. Shortly after take-off he peeled away from his formation and dropped to an altitude of about 150 feet to escape Soviet radar. After he was out of the range of the Soviet radar, Lieutenant Belenko took his plane up to 18,000 feet and headed for Japan.
The escape was meticulously planned for months. Belenko waited for the moment when they were to exercise on the Sea of Japan to make dash for freedom. He circled the Hakodate airport twice before landing and overshot the runway. Belenko had provided the West the opportunity to examine the aircraft more closely.
“He jerked the MiG into the tightest turn of which it was capable, allowed the 727 to clear, dived at a dangerously sharp angle, and touched the runway at 220 knots. As he deployed the drag chute and repeatedly slammed down the brake pedal, the MiG bucked, bridled, and vibrated as if it were going to come apart. Tires burning, it screeched and skidded down the runway, slowing but not stopping.
“It ran off the north end of the field, knocked down a pole, plowed over a second, and finally stopped a few feet from a large antenna 800 feet off the runway. The front tire had blown, but that was all,” according to an excerpt from a biography of the pilot written by John Barron MiG Pilot, The Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko, published in 1980.
The then director of the Central Intelligence Agency, George Bush aptly called the incident an “intelligence bonanza.” Surprisingly, none of the Western pilots flew the aircraft that Belenko brought.
Japan, however, ordered the dismantling
of the Soviet MiG 25. Assisted by nearly 20 United States Air Force experts
it separated the wings and vertical tails from the fuselage. The MiG-25 was taken in crates to the US for closer inspection and Belenko was flown to the country for questioning. He was granted citizenship in 1980.
EOM/
