They Fired 4,000 Missiles—and Still Never Touched It Inside the Enemy’s War on the SR-71 скачать в хорошем качестве

They Fired 4,000 Missiles—and Still Never Touched It Inside the Enemy’s War on the SR-71

January 31st, 1986. 11:00 hours. Murmansk Oblast, Soviet Union. The alarm bell shrilled through the operations hut of the 174th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, followed by the calm but urgent voice over the loudspeaker. "Attention. SR-71 intercept. All crews to stations." Guards Major Mikhail Myagkiy, already in his flight suit, drew his sidearm from the duty officer and ran toward his MiG-31 Foxhound. Around him, technicians scattered with frenzied energy. Ground crews shouted vectors and fuel loads. The tension was palpable, electric. After seven failed attempts, Myagkiy knew what awaited him. The appearance of an SR-71 was always accompanied by nervousness. Everyone began to talk in frenzied voices, to scurry about, and react to the situation with excessive emotion. The American reconnaissance aircraft was already 60 kilometers offshore, flying parallel to the Soviet coast at 72,000 feet and Mach 3.2. Moving at over 35 kilometers per minute. For the Soviet air defense system, the scheme for intercepting this aircraft had been computed down to the last second. The MiGs had to launch exactly 16 minutes after initial alert. Not 15 minutes. Not 17. Exactly 16. What the Soviets didn't know, what none of them could have imagined as they scrambled fighters and activated missile batteries, was that they were facing an aircraft that would never be caught. Not once in 24 years of operations. Not by the 4,000 missiles fired at it. Not by the hundreds of interceptor scrambles. The SR-71 Blackbird would retire undefeated, and in the decades that followed, Soviet and Russian pilots would quietly admit what they could never acknowledge during the Cold War: they had been rendered completely helpless by American technology. This is the story told by those who hunted it. The radar operators who watched it slip through their most advanced tracking systems. The fighter pilots who pushed their aircraft to structural limits chasing a target they could never reach. The missile crews who launched weapon after weapon into empty sky. This is the story of how Soviet confidence in the most sophisticated air defense network ever built turned to frustration, then resignation, as they realized the Americans had created something truly untouchable.