A MiG 25R from a squadron based at Bareilly in flight

New Delhi, April 7: Photographs of militant training camps across the Line of Control, images of Pakistani army and armoured corps movements, mapping of new roads built by adversaries in sensitive border regions ? ever wondered how India gets hold of these pictures?

The secret, so far, was in the Indian Air Force’s MiG 25 aircraft that are to be junked from service next month. The high-altitude surveillance aircraft capable of flying at 2.8 Mach will fly its last sortie for the IAF on May 1 from the base of the 102 Trisonic Squadron at Bareilly. IAF pilots recall some of the daredevilry that the MiG 25 has afforded them.

In 1997, for instance, Pakistani air authorities went into a flutter when a MiG 25 reportedly intruded into Pakistani airspace apparently to photograph a fundamentalist base west of Lahore.

The aircraft would have gone undetected if the pilot had not broken the sound barrier. The resultant sonic boom made Islamabad nervous. By the time Pakistani aircraft could scramble, the MiG 25 had flown too high ? it can fly up to 90,000 feet ? and too fast and was back in India.

Later, Pakistan foreign minister Gohar Ayub Khan said the Pakistan air force did not have aircraft to intercept at altitudes of more than 65,000 feet.

The MiG 25 also doubled as a second line of combat aircraft. In the 1980s, the IAF inducted 12 MiG 25s from the Soviet Union. Only four remain. On May 1, they will be flown to different airports of the IAF where they will be on static displays.

The IAF is preparing to get better and more sophisticated spy planes and equipment. Apart from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, it is also readying to receive the Israeli Phalcon airborne early warning and surveillance system mounted on a Russian IL-78 aircraft.