Dario Leone
Security, Europe
Hypersonic showdown.
What Would Happen If Russia's MiG-31 and America's SR-71 Went Toe-To-Toe?
“During my three years of flying overseas reconnaissance missions, I frequently saw contrails far below of potentially hostile fighters, but that day, above the Arctic Circle over the Barents Sea, was the only time I saw a Soviet fighter get close enough that I could actually see metal, though barely larger than a dot and only because our routine track was predictable. Back at Mildenhall, during our debriefing, our intelligence officer told us, with near certainty, that the interceptor was a MiG-31, the premier Soviet supersonic interceptor at that time.”
As we have explained in a previous article, retired Soviet MiG-31 pilot Major Mikhail Myagkiy took part in several intercept attempts on SR-71 Blackbirds participating in Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Operations Program (PAROP) missions to the Barents Sea area.
(This article by Dario Leone originally appeared on The Aviation Geek Club in 2018.)
According to his logbook Myagkiy has conducted 14 successful SR-71 intercepts:
21 August 1984
14 March 1985
18 March 1985
15 April 1985