A mig 25 never had a chance against an SR. they are not even in the same leaque, in fact I have never seen a Russian airplane worth talking about , When the Wall came down in Germany I was stationed in Germany at Spangdahlem AB . At about 8 ish in the morning I heard a flight of jets make a pass over the base, Didn't think much of it Then they peeled and landed , taxied up the back taxi way to the tower end,( Jet shop is just below the tower) Was very foggy , taxl to the transient ramp is DOWN HILL , runway at spang is higher than most of the taxi spots. Heard them taxi down and pull in, ran and ran and ran , , looked out from my window, I was the Propulsion Flight Chief , because the noise was getting annoying, ( I know, Jet Troop annoyed by running jet engines) Dawned on me they weren't US or German , at least not WEST GERMAN, Pilot was motioning to me and by now we had drifted out on to the grass adjacent to the ramp , 240 ish guys and gals , No one was around to chock them in and shut them down , so I walked on to the ramp and stopped at the first one EAST GERMAN AF ( sic, RUSSIAN ALLIES ) Chocked em and shut him down while my guys and gals did the rest of them , CALLED THe SRT (Securiety Response Team on the radio, COPS read AF SPs came out of the wood work, Then it hit home FIVE MIgs had just defected complete with flight crew. Held them there a week or so then they ALL flew back to the states . B 1b speed compared to SR, agin not the same aircraft, The B1 has a completely different wing and fuselage cross section, Speed is a recipe of many factors , Cross section , wing shape , thrust to weight ratio ect. The Wing on the B1 is not built for the speed of the SR The SR Engine is a special breed, it is a turbo jet with intake spike and afterburner , but its secret is its high by pass section that allows for operation as a basic ram jet, engine at speed. B1 engine is a turbo fan (TF) and cannot attain any where near the speed (forward motion ) as the J 58. NONE are flying, in the AF no question, haven't been for YEARS, easy way to check it is the query the ENGINE rebuild rate, ITS been zero at depot for years. Migs are crude aircraft, they use older HEAVY metals and there lack of hasteloy X and the like limits there repeated high temp (speed) use, Turmanskies routinely get overhauls at 250 hours, A TF 34 100 a usually goes 5000 hours between overhauls . Bottom line one max speed run in a mig usually means engine changes, SR went YEARS between programmed overhauls, and I do mean YEARS. AF enlisted did all the engine maint , on SRs after the Lockheed contractors ( almost all ex AF enlisted jet troops ) left. Russian ENGINE work was almost exclusively done by a cadre of OFFICER mechs , enlisted cleaned and swept floors. Don't be impressed buy any soviet or Russian stuff, NOTHING was interchangeable , no panels, no control surfaces. Russian panels came UN DRILLED for fasteners, because there quality control was abysmal. RUGGED , built like a tank( could be tank parts in their jets) but crap all crap. China, a different story, couldn't build a tank until 15 years ago , now they build GEN 5 aircraft and jet engines BECAUSE CORPORATE AMERICA GAVE THEM THE TECHNOLOGY to get access to cheap labor, ost of their stuff is JUNK, but they are quick studies unlike the Russians