fonchi262:Defection of Viktor BelenkoThis important event of the Cold War took place on September 6,

fonchi262:Defection of Viktor BelenkoThis important event of the Cold War took place on September 6, 1976 when Lieutenant Viktor Ivanovich Belenko of the Soviet Air Defence Forces flew his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25P “Foxbat” high-altitude supersonic interceptor aircraft from near Vladivostok in the Far East of the Soviet Union to Hakodate Airport in Hokkaido Prefecture of Japan.Originally intending to land at a military base close to Hokkaido, a combination of poor weather, an inadequate map and the failure of the Japanese Air Force to intercept him, as he had hoped combat aircraft would guide him to the air base, forced Belenko to land at a civilian airport with a runway far shorter that what his aircraft needed, overshooting the runway and almost crashing in the process, ending with just 30 seconds of fuel left. His defection to the United States caused tension between Japan and the USSR, especially after Japanese and American specialists moved the aircraft to Hyakuri Airbase and disassembled it, although Japan had prevented the US from testing the aircraft in their airspace due to fears of a Soviet retaliation attack.The interceptor was eventually returned to the USSR in boxes with some parts missing. The examination revealed to the US that, while impressive in speed, the MiG-25 was not the super-fighter that they had feared it to be, having become almost a machine of legends after defense annalists concluded it was a high-performance fighter jet capable of outperforming anything in NATO’s arsenal, forcing the US government to start developing a new, highly expensive fighter jet, the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle.Another revelation was the poor state of Japan’s air defenses network, with radars that detected the MiG when it was already inside Japanese air space, which also failed to both track the plane, and guide F-4 Phantoms II fighter jets that had been scrambled to intercept, the planes themselves also failing to detect the MiG due to outdated onboard radar. Following the embarrassment, Japan acquired both E-2 Hawkeye airborne warning aircraft and the same F-15 Eagle originally intended to counter the Foxbat. His reasons for defection were a general disillusionment in the soviet system, following his assignment to the Chuguyevka Air Base in the Far East, which lacked proper living facilities and the ones that existed were in disrepair, with his superiors belittling him for making suggestions to improved things, and his wife announcing his intention to divorce him and leaving with their son because of said living conditions, which became the key moment in his decision to defect. Viktor Belenko was granted political asylum and later citizenship in the US and became a consultant to the US military. He also became a public speaker and businessman, He remarried with an American music teacher, had two kids, later divorced her, and still lives in the United States, having never officially divorced his soviet wife. Please consider supporting me on Patreon! -- source link

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