In the late 1950s, Soviet intelligence learned that the Americans were developing a new state-of the art supersonic bomber that could render the entire Soviet Air Force and air defense system virtually obsolete. The nuclear-armed North American XB-70 Valkyrie would fly more than three times the speed of sound and at an altitude of 75,000 feet. Only a handful of the XB-70’s would be needed to overwhelm any target.
The Soviets would have just a few short years to respond to the threat by designing a new interceptor that could match the incredible performance of America’s XB-70 aircraft. But to guard the enormous air space of the Soviet Union, the interceptor would have to be quickly engineered and mass produced by the hundreds.
The result would be the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25, an interceptor engineered to do one thing; climb, catch and bring down the American bomber. But the aircraft would end up as one of the most misunderstood jets of the Cold War.