The aircraft, whose appearance in the skies in the early eighties created ripples in the US-led NATO alliance and has proved to be a vital intelligence-gathering work horse for the country in every crisis, is about to be phased out.
Capable of flying up to a height of 70,000 to 80,000 feet and attain speed up to three times faster than sound, the MiG-25 codenamed Foxbat by the NATO alliance has been used by the IAF as a superspy plane.
Though IAF officers were tighlipped, the aircraft, mounted with high resolution cameras, was said to have been used for reconissance purposes when the Indian armed forces were deployed in Sri Lanka in Operation Pawan in 1987 and in the year-long forward deployment Operation Parakram in 2001-2002.
Always kept under a veil of secrecy since its acquisition in the early 1980s, the plane has never been seen in public and the exploits of its daredevil pilots, though recorded, are not allowed to hit the limelight.
The systems and cameras in the spy plane are becoming outdated and with India launching more and more sophisticated satellites, the armed forces and intelligence agencies now have much better access from the sky, officials said.
The IAF acquired four of these planes from the then Soviet Union and these aircraft still operate from Bareilly, where the squadron is based.
"The reconissance fighters would take off and mingle with normal air traffic. Then in a split second switch on their after burners to attain tri-sonic speed to reach the stratosphere," some pilots, who flew the aircraft, recalled recently.
The aircraft was only vulnerable when flying in normal atmosphere. Once it reached the stratosphere, it could not be challenged. The US Air Force is the only one force with a matching aircraft in the SR 71 Blackbird.
India had also been bidding for the Beyond Visual Range Missile version of the fighter, but the Russians did not part with this technology.
The acquisition of such a version of the MiG-25 would have given the IAF the capability of shooting down any enemy fighter from almost near outer space, the pilots said.
