
Originally Posted by
Neo
Before the fall of Shah about 77 Tomcats were delivered to Iran, reportedly some were transfered to the sovjets.
During the cold war both the Russians and Americans were keen to gather design info.
If I remember correctly a Mig-25 was flown from Vladiwostok to Japan in Sept. 1976 when the Sovjet pilot Lt. Belenko defected.
Americans stripped the high perormance aircraft to the bottom febore returning it to the Russians.
Well that would have been 1980's The F-111 was developed in the 60's.
The Mig 29 AND the SU-27's development were started in the early 70's as a counter to the U.S. new design being touted at the time (Which would eventually become the F-15)
The Mig 25 was developed to counter a U.S. high ALt bomber which later got cancelled (I can't remember the name of the top of my head.)