Knowing that the US Air Force had named North American Aviation as prime contractor to develop the B-70 strategic bomber, with Mach 3 capability, the Soviet Union planned an advanced interceptor that could offset this threat. This led to the.design and development of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 later allocated the NATO reporting name 'Foxbat', but when news came that the North American B-70 programme had been cancelled, emphasis of MiG-25 development was shifted to high-speed reconnaissance rather than interception. The first initimation'in the West that this aircraft, identified by the MiG design bureau as the Ye-266, had flown came in April 1965 with a Soviet claim that the aircraft had established a new speed record in a 1000km closed circuit. Since that time, further records have been set by the Ye-266 and developed Ye-266M, the latter holding the current absolute world altitude record of 37650m. A cantilever high-wing monoplane with swept leading edges, a slender fuselage blended into the engine air inlets, twin outward-canted vertical tail surfaces and all-moving horizontal tail surfaces, the MiG-25 is constructed primarily of steel, with titanium used for the leading edges of wing and tail unit to maintain structural integrity despite the high temperatures resulting from kinetic heating.

The reconnaissance capability of the MiG-25 first became apparent in early 1971, when four were deployed by VVS units operating in Egypt. Used for the reconnaissance of Israeli operations during 1971-72, they proved to be completely immune from interception by Israeli air force McDonnell Douglas Phantoms. Since that time MiG-25s have become more extensively used by the VVS, and versions have been exported also to Algeria, India, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Production terminated in 1984 in favour of the MiG-31.