BELENKO, VIKTOR

The unexpected defection of a Soviet fighter pilot, Lt. Viktor Belenko, with his Mach-3 Foxbat high-altitude  interceptor to Hakodate, Japan, in September 1976 gave the Central Intelligence Agency a technological  windfall and compromised all the fighter’s advanced avionics, including the Fox Fire radar fire-control system, the ground-mapping Doppler radar, and the Sirena-3 warning and electronic countermeasure device. Belenko’s escape from the Chuguyevka air base in eastern Siberia gave American analysts total, if temporary, access to his plane, thus forcing the Soviet air defense service to adopt new equipment and standards, every detail of which was later compromised by Adolf Tolkachev. Belenko was later resettled in the United States and wrote an  account of his escape, MiG Pilot.