Algerian Foxbats Still Flying

[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]

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.

The French had some missions planed about a year ago in Libya to bomb the base in the middle of country where they still had the Tu-22 bombers and a lot of Libyan 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

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 example 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 for some more time (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.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Stratospheremodels

[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)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g23P7pRO2S0

[dawestsides]

Some old school pics now :

and more recently

Look at that speed

[ya-gabor]

Look at that speed :jaw-dropping:/>

Nice one! After all this is what this plane is supposed to do, and what it is good at.

Best regards

Gabor

[dawestsides]

Yeah , all these years and still able to push the engines that far

[TomCooper]

...

What happened with them?

Nothing. They're all still where they used to be about 10 or so years back.

Just dustier than ever before...

Somebody even posted a few photos of a few MiG-25s from al-Jufra/Hun (most are....or, better said: were - Ps), somewhere on the Flicker, but can't find them right now.

[TomCooper]

...Wouldn't have been worth it. The Libyan MIG-25's had been out of service many years before the conflict.

...

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..[/quote}

'Many years before the conflict' - yes. That said, they were withdrawn from service (in Libya) sometimes around the turn of centuries.

Before that the LAAF acquired more than 80 MiG-25s (according to Soviet/Russian sources) and operated them in at least four squadrons.

Rumours about retirement of Algerian MiG-25s are circiling (within Algerian air force - 'QJJ' - first and foremost) since nearly ten years. At least since the order for Su-30s.

Initially, there was a plan to replace them with Su-30s. However, it turned out this is simply impossible. Reason: the Su-30 can't scramble (when on QRA) as fast as good ol' Foxbat. Su-30s need (much) longer time to get all their systems up and working etc. Plus the MiG-25 is longer-ranged than MiG-29, which for a country the size of Algeria is of huge importance (especially when combined with MiG-25's speed). And with neighbours like Morocco, Mali etc., and 'allies' like France and USA, there is also little that's as intimidating as a MiG-25 underway at Mach 2 and an altitude of 60Kft+...

Another issue was that Russians have spoiled the MiG-29 deal with Algeria by delivering aircraft manufactured back in the early 1990s (instead of newly-built ones, as stipulated in contract). So, Algerians have returned MiG-29s and nearly cancelled the entire contract. In return for their up-front payment - and because Rosoboronexport was not only nearly three years later with all of delivieries, but also keen to save that deal - Algeria then received additional Su-30s instead (this resulted in some of cheapest Su-30s ever, indeed).

Thus, the QJJ found itself still flying old MiG-29s, but now equipped with many more Su-30s than necessary, though lacking a replacement for MiG-25s.

And so, it's not about 'pride', but about functionality and necessity: the Foxbats are soldiering on - primarily with help of spares procurred from Russia (apparently, there are still sufficient stocks there), and maintenance at local facilities.

The only thing that changed in recent years is that MiG-25s are not as often scrambled as at earlier times. I.e. their actual flying time was (dramatically) cut down. On the contrary, most of the time one can see them flying during various exercises.

Edited August 13, 2014 by TomCooper