As for speeds - which incident you are referring to? I mean it is still unknown what is max speed for MiG-25. Whoever tells you he or she knows - must be either a member of Mikoyan and Gurevitch Design Bureau or a Russian test pilot. Otherwise they just talking.

They proved to be very deadly by shooting down U-2. From the beginning anti-aircraft missiles were more than capable to shot down anything at any altitude.

Is correct the afirmation that the main role for the Mig-25 was to counter the "Valkyrie" B-70 treat. Once the B-70 project was canceled, the main reason for the Foxbat construction was gone, so, other alternatives for the Mig`s role were looked by the Soviets, among them, long bomber interception.

As far as I knew, no SR-71's were ever treaten by Mig 25's! As for the SAM treat being effective to counter American spy planes like the U-2 or SR-71, they were also false. The most publicited event where the SAM's were used (the downing of Gary Power's U-2 during the 60's inside the Soviet Union), was achieved by a lucky shot only after many SAM's were fired at the U-2 wich at the moment was many hours in to the flight inside the Soviet Union.

More over, the shooting was disorganized and caothic, the U-2 din't received a direct hit, just a lucky salvo that happened to explode close enough to destroy the airplane. So disorganize and poor acurate was the shooting, that a couple of pursuing Soviet fighters were also shot out of the sky by their own SAM misiles before they manage to shot the U-2.

So, the suposely SAM deterrence against American spy planes were somewhat vague. For the americans the downing of the U-2 was so terrible, that forced the introducction of the SR-71, but in reality the U-2 could have fly for many more years with out danger, it was Gary Power's mistake by flying the plane at lower altitud that risked the operation, and not because the U-2 wasn't up to the task.

U-2 was shot down by S-75 SAM. S-75 does not have to hit a target directly (as well as many other Soviet SAMs). It has a proximity fuse and SAM explodes within half a mile from the target on purpose. If friendly aircraft happened to be in the same area with the target - it will suffer too.
Mach 3 is not the speed of SAMs. It's more like Mach 5++.

All I can say is when SR-71 was taking-off from Norway, SAM operators as far as Moscow knew not only about it but also knew which SR-71 just took-off. There are a few flight patterns for SR-71 that are not detectable for SAM operators and that's where MiG-25 reconnaissance (not interceptor) features kick-in.

There were three circles of SAM defense around Moscow and they were working together with air reconnaissance (although they missed Cessna-172 landing on the Red Square) as well as all other anti-aircraft defense formations in former USSR. It was never perfect but it worked (sometimes).

To change the air defense situation S-300 and later S-400 SAM complexes were introduced.
Please keep-in-mind - all exported S-300 and S-400 SAM complexes have lowered capabilities compared to the Russian versions so we do not know much about their performance.

To add my notes. SR-71 was never stealth and probably never will be.
MiG-25 reminds me a RA-5C Vigilante, although Vigilante was never as fast as MiG-25 but it came out 6 years earlier.

Who copied who, why aircraft was built � it�s all speculations, not the exact science.

As for MiG-25 small amounts of fast speed - I agree, it was unable to sustain M3 for as long as SR-71 but not because of the engines short life.
MiG-25 still kicks SR-71's ass on a short run (about 20 minutes or until it runs out of kerosene).

To SR-71 credit - it was never shot down even though it was shot at many times. There were situations when missiles just were out of "gas" following SR-71.

Pixel, did you overhaul MiG-25 engines yourself after the "hard afterburner session"? If you did - then we'd love to hear your story. If not - then say so and do not repeat somebody else's story that is not true.

Yeah, Thewhat - there were reports of MiG-25 going M3.8++ and ceiling ability of MiG-25 are just as good as SR-71. World ceiling record held by MiG-25 (123,524 ft or 37,650 m), not SR-71.

Actually Soviet pilots forced down more planes of the opponent above USSR more and than once. In the given statistics some planes were downed above East Germany, but in the majority above USSR.

http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_301.shtml

http://home.sprynet.com/~anneled/ColdWar.html

MIG-25 FOXBAT many times intercepted a SR-71 near air border USSR, and the pilots of SR-71 were compelled to break prospecting missions.