War Among Oil States: Why the World’s Fastest Combat Jet Once Landed in Abu Dhabi

In one of the lesser known incidents of the Cold War, a Soviet-built MiG-25 Foxbat combat jet landed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on October 2, 1987, making the UAE one of the few countries in the world to ever host the aircraft. The MiG-25 was, and remains today, the fastest combat aircraft ever to enter service worldwide, with its speed exceeded only by the American SR-71 and A-12 reconnaissance planes – larger aircraft that were orders of magnitude more costly to procure and operate. A year after its service entry in 1970, the aircraft had seen its first test flight under high intensity combat conditions when <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/soviet-mig25-israeli-defences-debut" target="_blank">deployed by the Soviet Air Force</a> to Cairo West airport in Egypt, from where they overflew the Israeli held Sinai Peninsula and Israel itself. The Foxbats’ high speeds and operational altitudes made them <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/50-years-soviets-mig25s-invulnerability" target="_blank">effectively invulnerable</a> to Israel’s F-4E fighters and MIM-23 air defence systems, allowing them to capture valuable reconnaissance data over several months of operations without ever being hit. MiG-25s would subsequently demonstrate similar levels of invulnerability in Indian hands when <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/indian-mig-25-foxbats-untouchable" target="_blank">overflying Pakistan</a>, and in Algerian hands over Morocco and Spain. The MiG-25P/PD was developed as a dedicated interceptor, while the MiG-25RB and its many derivatives could be configured as bombers or for reconnaissance.&nbsp;<img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/25/article_6832e22a7e1ea7_65084993.png" title="MiG-25P Interceptor Equipped with R-40 Air-to-Air Missiles">The MiG-25’s arrival in Abu Dhabi was the product of political shifts in the Middle East, and in particular the changing position of neighbouring Iraq as it sought to align itself more closely with Western Bloc interests and the West’s strategic partners in the Gulf, despite operating a military overwhelmingly armed by the Soviet Union. A coup within the Iraqi Ba’ath Party led by President Saddam Hussein in 1979 marked the beginning of this shift, and saw Iraq downgrade ties with Soviet-aligned Algeria, Syria and Libya, and strengthen relations with Western-aligned Egypt, Jordan, North Yemen and the Gulf States. As a result, Iraq received considerable support from among Western-aligned Arab states when it launched an invasion of Iran in August 1980, but continued to rely on the Soviet Union as its primary arms supplier. The country received MiG-25s in 1982 including eight MiG-25RB reconnaissance-bombers, which were employed extensively both for reconnaissance and for strategic bombardment of Iranian cities.&nbsp;<img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/25/article_6832e1084e46b5_27532219.jpeg" title="MiG-25RB Reconnaissance Bomber with External Fuel Tank" >MiG-25RBs proved all but invulnerable to Iranian air defences, with the country relying on the same MIM-23 missile system and F-4E fighters that the Israelis had. Iran’s <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/the-f-14-tomcat-in-iranian-service" target="_blank">F-14 fighters</a> equipped with more capable AIM-54 air-to-air missiles were able to pose a limited threat to the MiG-25, but achieved only a single confirmed kill during the war in December&nbsp;1982, while the overwhelming majority of interception attempts ended in failure. The F-14’s cruising speed was approximately one third that of the MIG-25, and it operated at altitudes over 6000 meters lower, which combined with the poor reliability of the AIM-54 made engaging the Foxbat particularly difficult.&nbsp;Iraq lost only one other MiG-25 during the war, which was also a MiG-25RB that was shot down by Chinese HQ-2 high altitude air defences during a strategic bombing mission five years later in 1987. Iraqi ignorance of Iran’s procurement of this system, and negligence to first conduct reconnaissance of Iranian air defences as a result, was a primary factor leading to the loss of the aircraft. Although Iraq received no further MiG-25s after 1982, its fleet would continue to serve into 2003, with facilities hosting the aircraft being prioritised for air strikes by U.S.-led coalition forces during the Gulf War in 1991, while two of the aircraft were shot down by American F-15s when caught flying at lower speeds and altitudes. Unlike Iran’s sole F-14 kill, the U.S. Air Force and Navy never succeeded in shooting down a MiG-25 flying at high altitude, despite several attempts both during the Gulf War and in the following decade.<img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/25/article_6832e1a2bb9655_94031642.jpg" title="Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and UAE Founding Father Mohamed Bin Zayed" >On October 2, 1987, a MiG-25RB took off for a particularly long reconnaissance operation across Iran’s entire east coast. The aircraft’s high fuel capacity, and its engines which were highly fuel efficient when operating at high altitudes, facilitated a combat radius of over 900 kilometres when cruising at speeds of over Mach 2.4. This could be extended by over 20 percent through carriage of an external fuel tank. Despite the Foxbat’s high endurance, the aircraft ran short of fuel during its mission, which prevented it from returning to Iraq, but was permitted to land in Abu Dhabi. With the UAE having been strongly supportive of the Iraqi war effort, the country permitted the aircraft and its pilot to be immediately returned to Iraq, along with the reconnaissance data on Iranian positions. The rapid return of this data was vital to allowing the Iraqi Armed Forces to plan complex long-range strikes on Iran’s Larak Island and Farsi Island three days later on October 5.&nbsp;