Chapter 2

This is the Soviet Far East, the Primorsky Krai. Across the sea lies the island nation, and the warm sea breeze blows, covering the entire region with dense forests, making the scenery beautiful. In the distance, the Ussurka River flows quietly.

Thinking of the terrible smog and the hazy sky of the future, Andrei felt a bit of affection for this place. Although he didn't know how he had ended up here, it seemed not so bad.

Already cruising at an altitude of 8,000 meters, Andrei looked outside through the narrow visor. Accustomed to the flight helmets of the future, Andrei was very dissatisfied with the current helmet. The helmets of the future were half-helmets, with the entire face exposed, and only after putting on the oxygen mask and lowering the visor could the face be fully covered. The current helmet, however, was a full helmet, leaving only a small space in front to look out. However, the MiG-25 could fly to an altitude of 30,000 meters, and even with weapons attached, it could easily reach 25,000 meters, which was already the edge of space. Therefore, it was necessary to wear a helmet similar to an astronaut's and a high-altitude compensation suit; otherwise, if the plane really crashed and he was ejected from an altitude of over 20,000 meters, his blood would immediately boil.

However, the plane he was riding was quite impressive. This was the pride of the Soviet military industry, a masterpiece of the Mikoyan design bureau, the world's first aircraft capable of achieving "double three"! An altitude of 30,000 meters and a speed of three Mach!

At three Mach, the temperature on the surface of the aircraft would reach several hundred degrees, and ordinary aluminum alloys used to manufacture aircraft would melt at such temperatures! Therefore, to manufacture such a high-speed aircraft, special materials were required.

The American solution was to use heat-resistant titanium alloys, which were both light and strong, while the Soviet approach was to use common stainless steel!

Indeed, this was an aircraft made of stainless steel! It was definitely a heavy fighter, with an empty weight of 15 tons, a normal takeoff weight of 36 tons, and a fuel capacity of 16 tons!

Although Andrei had never flown this type of aircraft in the future, and he had almost crashed when he first arrived in the MiG-25, he now felt a faint excitement as he experienced the brute force aesthetics of this powerful aircraft.

"031, 032, heading 270, there is an unknown target in the 14th sea area, proceed to intercept immediately! Cruise at 2.4 Mach."

Originally, Andrei's aircraft had a malfunction and should not have been assigned such an interception mission, but their position was just right to quickly reach the 14th sea area, so they received this task while returning.

"Roger," the lead pilot, Belenko, replied. "Heading 270, speed 2.4."

Pressing the control stick, the aircraft drew an arc in the air and flew in the direction guided by the ground.

The standard interception tactics of the Soviet Air Defense Forces were conducted under ground guidance. Andrei followed his lead aircraft, banked to turn, and simultaneously engaged the afterburners on the rear engines to increase his speed.

At this altitude, air resistance was minimal. The two rear engines spewed out scorching exhaust, and when the afterburners were engaged, there was an instant sensation of a powerful thrust that accelerated the secretion of adrenaline. The R-15B-300 engine generated 109 kilonewtons of afterburner thrust, with fuel sprayed into the afterburner chamber, turning into high-temperature, high-pressure gas, propelling the aircraft to continue accelerating. A conical shock wave appeared at the front of the aircraft, and as it pierced through this shock wave, a slight sonic boom sounded, and the aircraft entered supersonic cruise!

On the green instrument panel, the Mach meter needle slowly turned, reaching 1.2 Mach, 1.5 Mach, 2 Mach, and finally stabilizing at 2.4 Mach!

Slightly reducing the throttle, Andrei stabilized the aircraft at 2.4 Mach.

The two MiG-25 aircraft, flying at 2.4 Mach at an altitude of 24,000 meters, quickly approached the target area 200 kilometers away. This distance would take the MiG-25 only four minutes! For ordinary fighters, it would take at least ten minutes, which was the advantage of interceptors!

Throughout the process, Andrei had not turned off the afterburners since takeoff, remaining in afterburner flight.

For ordinary fighters, such as the F-15, afterburners could only be used during combat takeoff and air combat, with the afterburner usage time accounting for less than 10% of the total flight time, and each use could not exceed three minutes, otherwise, the engine would be damaged.

For pure interceptors, like the current MiG-25, afterburners could be used during combat takeoff, climb, dash to the combat zone, and air combat, with the afterburner usage time reaching about 50% of the total flight time!

Otherwise, if the MiG-25 could only fly at over 2 Mach for a few minutes, it would have no practical combat value. The MiG-25 could cruise at 2.4 Mach indefinitely until the fuel was exhausted, and flying at 2.83 to 3.2 Mach could potentially damage the engine, but it was not certain. During training, flying at 2.6 Mach was allowed for 15 minutes, and flying over 2.83 Mach required approval from the regiment, while only the best pilots were approved to fly over 3 Mach.

However, using afterburners consumed a large amount of fuel. To give the MiG-25 a longer supersonic range, the Soviet approach was to increase the fuel capacity! The internal fuel capacity of the MiG-25 was as high as 16 tons!

From the base, during flight training, they always flew subsonically without engaging the afterburners. Now, after receiving the order, the remaining fuel in their aircraft was over 12 tons, which was enough to support them flying in supersonic cruise to the 14th sea area, completing the interception mission, and then returning subsonically!

Andrei's unit was stationed in the Far East, with the main task of monitoring the U.S. military in the island nation across the sea and conducting interception actions at any time. They had carried out such missions many times.

Each time, it was just a matter of driving them away, but this time, with Andrei's arrival, it was bound to be different!

The rapid flight caused friction between the aircraft and the air, and the canopy was absolutely not to be touched by hand, as it would cause burns. Although the cockpit had an air conditioning system, the temperature had already risen to 50 degrees, which was definitely not a comfortable temperature, but all pilots of the MiG-25 found it acceptable!

The aircraft was for combat, not for comfort, and the Soviet Union, which never paid attention to ergonomics, did not find this inappropriate.