Скачать или смотреть MiG-25 Foxbat: The “Vacuum Tube” Radar American Engineers Mocked—Then Called Genius

In 1976, Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko landed his MiG-25 Foxbat in Japan and handed the West the prize it had hunted for years. American engineers expected cutting-edge Soviet electronics inside. Instead, they opened the nose and burst out laughing: the MiG-25’s RP-25 “Smerch” radar was full of vacuum tubes, cloth-insulated wiring, and stamped steel.

Then they turned it on.

This episode tells the full story of Belenko’s low-level dash across the Sea of Japan, the Wright-Patterson teardown of the MiG-25, and how a “primitive” 600-kilowatt vacuum tube radar burned through American jammers, survived simulated nuclear EMP, and forced the U.S. to rethink its entire electronic warfare doctrine. What looked like backward Soviet technology turned out to be a brutally clever engineering choice for a nuclear battlefield.

If you’re interested in Cold War aviation, radar, electronic warfare, or the real story behind the Foxbat, this is a case study in why “obsolete” parts can be genius when the mission is to keep flying after everyone else’s electronics are fried.

CHAPTERS
0:00 – Belenko’s Foxbat at zero fuel
1:20 – How the MiG-25 was really flown
2:40 – Steel airframe, brutal R15 turbojets
4:10 – Inside the RP-25 “Smerch” radar
6:20 – Why Soviet engineers chose vacuum tubes
8:40 – Field repairs with a socket wrench
10:55 – Planning the defection to Japan
13:20 – Low-level dash across the Sea of Japan
15:25 – Landing a Foxbat on a civilian runway
16:55 – MiG-25 shipped to Wright-Patterson
18:30 – “This looks like WWII electronics”
19:50 – 600 kW: the radar that shouldn’t exist
21:40 – EMP tests: tubes vs. transistors
24:10 – Burn-through power and failed U.S. jammers
27:40 – MiG-25 vs. EA-6B Prowler encounter
31:30 – Forced upgrades to U.S. EW doctrine
35:10 – Belenko’s debrief and Soviet readiness
39:10 – Vacuum tubes, EMP, and nuclear war planning
41:10 – The Cold War lesson of “primitive” tech

#MiG25 #Foxbat #ColdWar #AviationHistory #MilitaryHistory #ViktorBelenko #Radar #ElectronicWarfare #SovietUnion #VacuumTubes