Message posted by Chris McDowell on November 15, 2006 at 16:54:34 PST:
On one of the mil-aviation forums I frequent, I came across a statement which I found interesting. The guy who posted this has a solid record of reliability, but I think some of the folks here might be more knowledgeable in this area. He says that there were 2 MiG-25s tested at Groom between 1975 and 1980. They were evaluated extensively, then disassembled and buried at the base. Furthermore, he claims that it was this evaluation, and not Viktor Belenko's 1976 defection, that revealed to us that the Foxbat wasn't the superfighter we had feared it to be. Indeed, we played up the significance of Belenko's defection to cover the fact that we already had 2 of the aircraft. This guy never talks about where he gets his info, but as I said, he's been reliable in the past. But again, I think some of the people here might have more definitive info, one way or the other. What say y'all? Chris M.
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