A Former Foxhound Pilot Explains How to Catch and Shootdown a Blackbird Spy Plane

Dario Leone

History, Europe

Is it possible?

Military 1st Class Pilot Mikhail Myagkiy, Guards Major (ret.), is one of the PVO (Protivo-vozdushnoy Ororony or air defence force) pilots who executed intercepts of the SR-71 near the border of USSR in the far north. During this period he conducted 14 successful SR-71 intercepts.

In this article, a retired Soviet MiG-31 pilot, Major Mikhail Myagkiy, recalls techniques used during practice intercept attempts on SR-71 Blackbirds participating in Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Operations Program (PAROP) missions to the Barents Sea area.

Russian military aviation writer Valery Romanenko has undertaken detailed research for Paul F Crickmore’s book Lockheed Blackbird: Beyond the Secret Missions (Revised Edition), and with the help of translators James F. Gebhardt, Ilya Grinberg and Dr Heinz Berger, the fruits of an interview with Maj Mikhail Myagkiy are detailed below.