Chapter 35: Shooting Down Belenko

The MiG-25 was designed to be a special aircraft. The R-40 missile was developed specifically for the MiG-25. Aside from the missile, even a pylon must be able to operate normally in the high temperature caused by the speed of Mach 3, and it also needs to be specially designed. The early MiG-25 could only carry the R-40 missile. This large and heavy missile only gave the MiG-25 the ability to intercept at medium range, with limited overload and unable to engage in close combat. Therefore, the MiG-25, an interceptor, would hardly get into close combat with its opponent.

It was not until the improved MiG-25PD, the fighter that Andrei was flying, that it was improved and adopted a new radar and fire control system, and was also capable of carrying short-range R-60 missiles.

This is a third-generation air-to-air missile developed by the Soviet Union's Pennant Machine-Building Design Bureau in the late 1960s to meet the requirements of future air combat. It was put into production in 1973 and put into service in 1975. NATO named it AA-8 "Aphid".

According to previous tactical analysis, this new missile should have excellent maneuverability, so it changed the previous situation of being big and thick. The whole missile is small, with 4 rectangular fixed stabilizing wings in the front, and the trapezoidal tail fins to ensure the flight stability of the missile. The 4 movable triangular wings in the front of the missile body are used to control the flight direction of the missile. This light missile with a total weight of only 65 kilograms has a maximum range of only more than ten kilometers, and in the dense atmosphere at low altitude, the effective range will be shortened to two kilometers. It can be said that this missile is completely used for hunting within the range of machine guns.

Due to the use of a new guidance head, the missile's ability to capture targets exceeds that of any previous air-to-air missile. After Andre pressed the button, a thick smoke flew out from under the wing, and an R-60 missile was fired at the chrysanthemum of the MiG-25 in front.

In the blazing tail flame, the R-15 engine of the MiG-25, which was still in afterburner, was a clear heat source. The R-60 missile hit one of the engines effortlessly. The 6-kilogram high-explosive fragmentation warhead exploded, and countless fragments flew across. Suddenly, thick smoke came out of the R-15 engine, and it was damaged!

The enemy was only injured! The Soviet defense industry, which was good at going to extremes, developed a lightweight R-60 missile, which greatly improved its maneuverability. However, its disadvantages were also prominent. The range was too short, and the warhead was too light, so the lethality was limited!

The MiG-25, with only one engine left, was still flying! Belenko in front tried hard to control the plane and continued to accelerate.

Why haven't the Americans come yet? If they don't come to pick me up, I'm afraid I won't be able to fly to the American base!

Could it be that Annie didn't send the intelligence to the United States? Wait! There's a problem! At the last moment, Belenko suddenly thought of something. How could Annie contact the United States so easily? What secret channels does she have? Unless she is an American intelligence officer! In the past few days, Belenko was fascinated by Annie. He wanted to be with Annie, and his brain had already short-circuited. Now, he felt that there was a problem. Although he had the idea of ​​defecting by plane before, he never put it into action. Now, almost completely under Annie's guidance, he took actual action!

However, at this time, he had no room for regret. He only hoped that Anne could inform the US government and ask them to come and protect him. By the way, when Sokolovka ordered Andrei to shoot him down, he seemed to have mentioned that there were two targets approaching quickly! They must be here to protect him!

Just now when he was flying with Andre, he saw four missiles mounted under Andre's wings. Andre would not let him go. There were still three missiles. Would he continue to attack him?

The moment Belenko was hesitating, he felt the body of the aircraft suddenly shake, and then the huge roar at the tail disappeared.

Damn, the fuel is gone!

The fighter plane had very little fuel before departure, and in order to avoid radar detection, Belenko had been flying in the low-altitude dense atmosphere, which had high resistance and fuel consumption. If he had continued to fly at low altitude, he could have reached Hokkaido, but Andrei was chasing him, forcing him to turn on the afterburner to climb.

After turning on the afterburner, the fuel consumption soared. Just like that, less than a hundred nautical miles away from Hokkaido, he had already used up all the fuel!

The MiG-25 can still fly if it loses one engine, but if both engines lose power, there is only one outcome: crash!

After seeing that the fuel gauge indicated zero and the tail engine had been shut down, Belenko had no choice but to eject.

He fastened the visor of his full-face flight helmet, folded his legs, and pulled the operating lever to change the plane to level flight. After completing these actions, he looked at the altitude and speed of the fighter plane, which met the conditions for ejection. He took a deep breath and pulled the ejection handle.

"Bang." As the cockpit cover above his head was thrown away, the rocket of the KM-1 ejection seat at the bottom ignited successfully, pushing Belenko out of the cockpit and flying away from the fighter. Two seconds later, the seat separated from the person and the parachute opened.

Andrei, who was behind, had already prepared another R-40 missile. He had discovered that the R-60 missile had limited lethality. In order to shoot down this iron fighter, he had to use this heavy missile.

Due to the limited range, Andre needed to distance himself from the MiG-25 in front before he could launch the R-40 missile. After a delay of two seconds, the other engine of the MiG-25 in front suddenly shut down.

What happened? With his hand on the launch button, Andrei did not launch the missile, but saw Belenko ejected from the cockpit. The MiG-25 was losing altitude and soon fell into the sea.

"032, return immediately, 032, return immediately, two targets, distance 20, altitude 12,000, direction 190!" A voice came from behind in the headset.

In the long-range radar at the rear, it could be seen that Andrei's fighter plane had launched a missile, although a few seconds late, the defecting fighter plane in front had already crashed. Therefore, Kozhedub thought that Andrei had completed the mission and immediately ordered him to return.

The two American fighter planes were approaching rapidly. Andrei, a young man, might fight with them. Shooting down a defecting fighter plane is one thing, but fighting with the enemy's fighter plane is another. Kozhedub did not want to escalate the conflict.