Russian MiG-31BM Pilot Admits to Shooting Down Ukrainian Su-24 With Hypersonic Missile

Russian MiG-31BM Pilot Admits to Shooting Down Ukrainian Su-24 With Hypersonic Missile

Moscow - The war between Russia and Ukraine is still raging and has entered its ninth month. In a war that caused massive casualties and infrastructure damage, both sides claimed victory.

In an interview with Zvezda TV, a Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) pilot named Alexander said he managed to shoot down a Ukrainian Su-24 with a long-range air-to-air missile using a MiG-31BM aircraft. The video shows a MiG-31BM of the 712th Regiment in Kansk taking off from the Air Force Base in Belbek, Crimea. The aircraft carries three R-37M long-range hypersonic air-to-air missiles (NATO: AA-13 Axehead) and two R-77-1 long-range air-to-air missiles (NATO: AA-12 Adder).

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About the MiG-31BM Fighter

Regarding the MiG-31BM, it is an updated version of the standard MiG-31 variant. The BM code represents a modernized MiG-31B. Not only capable of air-to-air combat, the aircraft also has the ability to carry out additional air-to-ground attacks.

The MiG-31 was primarily designed as an interceptor. The MiG-31 prototype first flew on 16 September 1975 and was introduced on 6 May 1981. Development of the BM variant began in 1997. The first prototype was introduced in 1998. While the second prototype was completed in 2006.

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In 2011 the Russian Ministry of Defense signed the first contract to upgrade a total of 60 aircraft to the new standard. In 2017 a total of 110 aircraft were reported to be upgraded from MiG-31B standard to MiG-31BM and MiG-31BMS standard.

MiG-31BM is called a true multirole aircraft. The aircraft is capable of performing long-range interception, precision attack and defensive suppression tasks. One of its roles is to suppress enemy air defenses. It is one of the deadliest fighter planes in the world.

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The MiG-31BM has a high speed, altitude and climb rate. The maximum speed is up to 3,000 km/hour. However, this aircraft is not as agile as the Su-27/30 family from Sukhoi. The maneuver factor is also sacrificed on the MiG-31 in order to achieve the capabilities as mentioned. The aircraft is equipped with a Zaslon-AM phased array radar. This radar can detect air targets at a maximum range of 320 km. The aircraft can simultaneously track 24 air targets and engage 8 of them at once with its missiles.

The MiG-31BM can also act as a small airborne early warning aircraft. With a powerful radar and long detection range, it has the added ability to track and link to multiple radar contacts. The MiG-31BM can act as an air command post and coordinate the actions of other types of fighters.