BONANZA OR BUST?

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05093953
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: May 29, 2019
• Case Number: F-2016-00620
• Publication Date: November 1, 1976

Tz TICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE
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IlsilTELLIGENCE -
Bonanza or Bust?
Approved for Release: 2019/04/11 C05093953 /
TINE
1 November 1976
1
When a Russian pilot flew a IvliG-
25 to northern Japan last month and 1
asked for political asylum in the U.S.,
CIA Director George Bush hailed the de- '
fection as an "intelligence bonanza." i
According to euphoric Pentagon spokes- I
men, an examination of the plane and
interrogation of the Pilot would yield vi-
tal secrets about Soviet air-weapons
technology. But U.S. experts who were l
dispatched to Japan for a three-week I
study of the aircraft have come to a dif- 1
ferent and surprising conclusion: the
much-touted superplane brought to the
West by Soviet Air Force 1st Lieut.
Vilctor Belenko is, in many respects, a
clinker. - '-
� Country Tinker. The plane turned
out to be a crude, early version of the
Foxbat, which the Russians designed 15
years ago to bring down the super-
sonic B-70, a U.S. bomber that never be-
came operational. Belenko's MiG was
equipped with obsolescent electronic
targeting and radar systems. Its maxi-
mum range' of 1,200 miles was short
compared with the American F-4 Phan-
tom fighter 2,100 miles. Belenko's
plane was also vastly inferior to the re-
. connaissance version of the Foxbat,
which the 'U.S. has tracked over much
longer ranges in the Middle East. Per-
haps the most striking anomaly on Be-
lenko's aircraft was the patches clumsi-
ly riveted to the plane's surface. Said one
bemused U.S. aerodynamics expert:
"Those repairs looked like a country tin-
ker had gone to work patching up a pot."
Though beat-up and even rusty in
spots, Belenko's plane nonetheless had
two immensely powerful Tumansky en-
gines that are as advanced as anything
made by General Electric or Rolls-
Royce. U.S. experts were impressed by
the engines' lubrication system and by
the Soviets' highly sophisticated forging
techniques. But one crucial element of
the MiG-25 was missing: the four air-to-
air missiles the plane ordinarily carries::
Probably to increase his speed, the So:I
viet pilot had flown his plane to the West \
while on a training flight without the
heavy weapons that experts need to cal-
culate the Foxbat's true military capa-
bility. Belenko himself was of less help
than intelligence had hoped. Although
he was apparently cooperating with his
U.S. interrogators in a "safe house" near
Washington, it seemed unlikely that he
knew anything more than the mechan-
ics of his plane.
Clearly; the bonanza had turned into
something� of a bust for the Pentagon.
The once legendary MiG-25 no longer
provided so strong an argument for ob-
taining more appropriations for the U.S.
fighter fleet. Michigan Democrat Rob-
ert Carr, a member of the House Armed
Services Committee, declared that "as
a demonstration of technology (the
MiG-251 call i into serious question the
Pentagon claims of mushrooming Sovi-
et military gains." :
Angry Soviets. Some Washington
analysts were even speculating that Be-
lenko and his rough-and-ready flying
machine might have been a deliberate
Russian plant, designed to show that the
U.S. Air Force has been overresponding
to an imagined Soviet threat in weap-
onry. Others speculated that the Rus-
sians wanted the Japanese to let U.S.
experts examine their plane. According
to this scenario, such anti-Soviet action
provided Moscow with an excuse to
postpone indefinitely an agreement with I
Tokyo over the four strategic Kurile Is-
lands, which were seized by the Rus-
sians in 1945. "It's far out, but that's
how the Soviets think," said one senior
State Department official last week.
Apparently unperturbed, the Japa-
nese prepared Iasi/week to return the
Foxbat to the Rrastans. The angry Sovi-
ets will send a freighter to take delivery
of their aircraft at the port of Hitachi.
The Japanese coolly demanded that the
Russians compensate them for facilities
damaged when Belenko overran the
runway on Hokkaido and for the ex-
pense of dismantling, crating and trans-
' porting the plane from Hyakuri airbase,
90 miles north of Tokyo, to Hitachi.
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pproved for Release: 2019/04/11 C05093953