The Mig top speeds quoted always involve a plane that had no ordinance and was essentially empty. Even then the plane couldn't handle mach 2.83 for longer than

The Mig top speeds quoted always involve a plane that had no ordinance and was essentially empty. Even then the plane couldn't handle mach 2.83 for longer than 5 or so minutes due to heat generated by air friction damaging both the engines and the air-frame. Meanwhile the SR-71's top sustainable speed was mach +3. So basically a mig25 would have to be in the perfect spot and ready to have a chance at shooting down a SR-71. Even then the odds of success wouldn't be that great. The way bigger threat were the new generation of SAMs coming online that COULD give the SR-71 a lot of trouble. The spin off industries related to the SR-71 was massive and well worth the research. I'm not aware of a mig25 actually shooting down a F15. The only incident I'm aware of was the "ambush" in Samurra. So I'd like to know what incident you're referring to.