The MiG-25P was tested against simulated threats and MiGs-25R acting as Blackbirds and other high-speed american aircraft of the time. They succeded in intercepting all, but offcourse, not every time. That’ why they were practising ans planning more advanced MiG-25 versions. There were plans for installing upgraded engines and upgrading the airframe which would give MiG even more speed and altitude. Plans were set to increase its speed all the way up to Mach 3.5 and increasing operational altitude. But the airforce liked the MiG-31 better, and these plans were scrapped. I wonder what would have happened if the F-12B or XB-70 entered service.
And there is also the matter of Avro Arrow, and how fast that plane could have been?

About that book and the claimed SR-71 intercept by MiG-31… Is it known at what speed and altitude that intercept was made. It sounds suprising to me for a foxhound pilot to be able to see blackbird. Maybe the blackbird was doing a turn or experiencing unstart?
Or maybe the MiG is faster than we think? I always somehow felt that the famous M2.83 limit imposed on both the 25 and 31 was a lie. I mean, okay for the early production examples and the instability at high speeds, but those engines kept producing more and more thrust as they were developed and the plane itself was slightly redisigned more than few times over the years. It seems unlikely that the uprated engines had the same engine rpm limiter as the earlier redlined examples? Any thoughts?

What about those 5 remaining examples in russia? Are those the same planes used to fly paying civilian passangers?

If they are carving the upgraded aircraft up for parts the fiscal situation must be really bad.

It’s not that bad… Economy is doing good, and for the first time there is a plan about armed forces. MiGs are just kept in flightwothy condition to last untill new multirole planes are bought. There wouldn’t be much sense in investing any considerable money in our MiGs. By the end of 2007 the decision about our country’s next multirole plane will be made, and by 2011 these new planes should be flying… Currently, the word is that gripen is the most likely candidate.
I don’t really know the condition of those MiGs, but they did take part in a joint USAF(flying from Aviano)-CroAF exersise this summer, so they were flying at the time.

croatia will get new Jas-39 gripens in 2010 and dump the Mig fleet

That’s not for sure…It will be in 2011, and the decision must be made untill the begging of 2008. The gripen is the most probable candidate…

and will probably get new attack helicopters, since they are going to dump the Mil-24’s

The first of some 10-12 Mi-171Sh from Russia will be delivered in a few months…

20 PC-9s will be kept in service. The only other area scheduled for improvements and new ACs will be the transoprts.

12 JAS 39 Gripens C/D model…
12 newbuild Mi-171Sh(which we are gettin anyway, but still), old MI-8 to MTV standard
…additional…
after some years, gripen batch 2(12 planes) with upgrades for the entire fleet, or maybe a batch of Eurofighters instead…
for advance training…our neighbours’ G-4M, possibly produced in joined production

alternatively

for air defense…4 Tesla death beams 😀 :p (afterall, we have just celebrated his 150th birthday)
for air-superiority… 1(in words, one) Borg cube, class 4 tactical, with reduced radar signature and integrated METEOR and IRIS-T missiles and, offcourse, TVC impulse engines, can’t forget that one… 😀
..and 1 LucasArt’s production studio, so we can fool our enemies that we have more than 1!

Never give up, never surrender! 😀 😀 😀

Pretty neat that this new roadmap came out just when the croatian military roadmap came out… Intresting 🙂 !
Well, anyway, that 2,4% GDP for the army is, well indeed, pretty high. Croatia will spend 2% of its GDP, but offcourse, the GDP will get higher year after year. And there is also our navy to include, which serbia doesn’t have anymore(I wonder was this plan made with montenegro as a independent country in mind?)

Some comments on the Gripen…

Everyone seems to think that the Gripen is the be-all-end-all for small countries looking for a cost-effective but capable fighter. I’m not so sure…

Serbia is a lot smaller than the old Yugoslavia, so the superior climb rate of a larger jet like the Eurofighter or Su-30 would be preferable to the Gripen. When your country has a small area, climb-rate is more important than when you have a larger area.

Also, consider the future of the airplane. Any upgrades to an airplane are financed by the customers of that airplane. In the Eurofighter’s case, that means that they can tap into the combined financial and industrial resources of the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, and all the export customers (Saudi Arabia, Greece, Austria). In the Gripens case, it’s the combined resources of Sweden, and its export customers (Hungary and Czech Republic). Obviously the former group has way more money than the latter, so the Eurofighter clearly has a much brighter future than the Gripen.

Climb rate? What for are you climbing? So, because of the climb rate, you would spend nearly twice the money just to get marginaly better climb rate. You could just put EJ200 in your gripen, it fits just wright. Or F414. Cheaper too…

It’s the same discussion here in Croatia, about the gripen. Nothing is sure for now, except the fact that the new multi-role ACs will enter service in 2011, the year when our MiG-21s will stop flying.
It seems also that the f-16 is loosing the race against the gripen…