[dawestsides]

Berkut, on 09 April 2012 - 09:02 PM, said:

As far as i know, there is atleast two bases that still use MiG-25's, here is one of them:

http://pressa-zvo.li...com/139620.html

Last year at Monino, the museum director - a former MiG-31 pilot - got a little bit irritated when I told him that the algerian Foxbats - PD/PDS - were the last interceptors flying in the world,and that Russia was still using the RB versions only...

[dawestsides]

ya-gabor, on 10 April 2012 - 07:35 AM, said:

dawestsides
Was that press from tabloids on the French plane or where there any photographers from aviation publications too???

Berkut
I believe the MiG-25RBXX (XX whichever sub version of it is) still have capabilities not available with other platforms. It's like the question of keeping the U-2 descendants still in the air by the US (with all the UAV's around).

The French had some missions planed about a year ago in Lybia to bomb the base in the middle of country where they still had the Tu-22 bombers and a lot of Lybian MiG-25's stored around the base. Did they go in??? Are there any post strike images around or even better visit to the base???

Actually the guy who posted those pics is a well known french defense journalist.

As for the Libyan Foxbats you can see a Blinder at 01:08

http://www.youtube.c...d&v=5rUr2MkSeFA

[ya-gabor]

Thanks dawestsides,
I have seen this video before, unfortunately it is a tipical example of boulvar journalism.

There were some photos of this Tu-22 two or three jears ago when they had an airshow in Libia and a number of Western photographers were also present.
The Tu-22 base I was writing about is in the middle of the country. On the Google photo the bombers and the interceptors are clearly visible. Try to find the photo.

Best regards
Gabor

[dawestsides]

I think you're talking about LAVEX 2009 at Mitiga AFB:

http://forums.airsho...php?f=8&t=16776

http://forum.scrambl...hp?f=41&t=56837

can't find Blinder pcitures though ...

This post has been edited by dawestsides: 14 April 2012 - 01:10 AM

[ya-gabor]

dawestsides, on 14 April 2012 - 01:00 AM, said:

I think you're talking about LAVEX 2009 at Mitiga AFB:

http://forums.airsho...php?f=8&t=16776

http://forum.scrambl...hp?f=41&t=56837

can't find Blinder pcitures though ...

Hi dawestsides,
Thanks for this. I havent seen this selection before, but very nice. Will look around for the Tu-22 where it was.
Did any of those people take a detailed photo of the MiG-23MLD central pylon. It was a very specila one developed for the Afgan war and it had flare launchers in it. I cant find any good photos of it, especially the after end of it.

Best regards
Gabor

[ya-gabor]

Hi dawestsides

The Libian Tu-22's that I was mentioning were at base in central Libia near the city of Hun. There are Google images of them in late 2010.

Here it is.



What happened with them? I remember that the French had a mission on this base in the spring of last year.

Best regards
Gabor

[dawestsides]

They look to be in good shape,at least at that time.

[ya-gabor]

dawestsides, on 15 April 2012 - 05:55 PM, said:

They look to be in good shape,at least at that time.

They certainly do! There was at least 7 examples visible there and a few dozen MiG-25's!!!
I haven't looked at the place since then. There were two or three other Tu-22's in other locations.

Best regards
Gabor

[dawestsides]

MiG-25PD FU-94 of the AAF 110th Fighter Squadron , Ain Oussera AFB :

[Stratospheremodels]

It's an impressive aircraft with that enormous fuel tank under it. Still those Algerian interceptors . . .
The French had some missions planed about a year ago in Lybia to bomb the base in the middle of country where they still had the Tu-22 bombers and a lot of Lybian MiG-25's stored around the base. Did they go in??? Are there any post strike images around or even better visit to the base???

Best regards
Gabor
[/quote]

Wouldn't have been worth it. The Libyan MIG-25's had been out of service many years before the conflict. There was also general bad maintenance on most of the air force`s aircrafts, they did not really invest much on that large number of old aircrafts to keep them flying, in fact i remember one article in a British aviation magazine of one senior officier who was flying i believe Mig-23 or Mig-21 who got killed soon after his interview when his airplane either crashed or disintegrated in flight. To give just the exemple of the IAF, they retired their own MIG-25's because it had become too expensive to keep them flying, they were at the point where they had to cannibalize aircrafts for parts and they had to reverse engineer what they could not replace because the manufacturer would not give them new parts, they also would not even give them blueprints to make new parts themselves, those had been destroyed as well i think. I can't figure out how Algeria can still keep theirs flying, probably the same way as India did, so my guess is that they won't be flying for much more time, that is unless the gov't is willing to keep pouring large sums of petro-dinars into having reverse-engineered parts made by some companies or even in-house to keep them flying some more (depends on how much pride the AF and gov't put in these assets to justify what is a bit of a financial hole just so they can say they are the last air force flying Mach 3 aircrafts).

Stephane.

This post has been edited by Stratospheremodels: 17 October 2012 - 04:21 AM

[dawestsides]

Salut Stephane,

the Zaporozhye aircraft repair plant in Ukraine where the algerian Foxbats used to be overhauled stopped working on the MiG-25 02 months ago ,and the last spare parts boxes have been sent to Algeria ,so indeed the algerians will soon put an end to their Foxbats flights.
I believe the AAF has only 4 RB aircrafts still airworthy (FG-34 , FG-39 , FG-62 and FG-79) along with a dozen PD/PDS that were overhauled in 2009-2011.
For a country without satellite capabilities , the use of high-altitude "recce" assets like the MiG-25RB/Rbsh can be easily justified.As for the interceptors I guess that it's only a matter of "prestige" for the algerian air force.

[Stratospheremodels]

Hi Dawestsides,

Thank you for the info !

I had also completely forgotten that Syria and at least one or two other countries are probably still flying their Foxbats. Not totally sure if the last few Russian ones are still flying, though the ones for the tourists for the ballistic flights are probably still flying (not for long too i guess) ?

Stephane.

[CGAIR]

It has been my understanding the Mig-25 engines had a limited operational life span before rebuild. True?

Regards

[dawestsides]

I don't know the exact numbers , but some are saying around 300hrs.

Meanwhile other pictures :

[dawestsides]

Nice take-off/flyby footage of a an Algerian P model upgraded to PDS (Serial FU-85)