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Russian MiG-31 fighters hold dogfight in stratosphere in drills over Kamchatka

Under the drills’ scenario, a MiG-31 fighter simulated intrusion into Russia’s airspace after gaining a supersonic speed at an altitude of about 20,000 meters

MiG-31 fighter Lev Fedoseyev/TASS

MiG-31 fighter

© Lev Fedoseyev/TASS

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY. October 6. /TASS/. MiG-31 fighters of the Pacific Fleet’s naval aviation held a dogfight with a notional intruder in the stratosphere during drills over the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, the Fleet’s press office reported on Tuesday.

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"Under the drills’ scenario, a MiG-31 fighter of a composite air regiment of troops and forces in Russia’s northeast simulated intrusion into Russia’s airspace after gaining a supersonic speed at an altitude of about 20,000 meters," the press office said in a statement.

Another MiG-31 high-altitude fighter was scrambled to intercept the notional intruder. Under the drills’ scenario, the fighter’s crew was assigned the task of finding the intruder on its own, without the help of ground-based air defense systems in order to complicate the assignment, the statement says.

After detecting the intruder and locking on the target, the pilots conducted electronic launches of long-range air-to-air missiles, the press office said.

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