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Soviet Endgame: Recon by Fire

1 July 1981
5000 Meters over Cologne
Soviet-Occupied Germany

Lt. Colonel Dmitriy “Germes” Bogdanov felt alive as he looked at the clear blue skies over Germany. It had been six months since his MiG-25R was brought down over Giebelstadt, West Germany. No, he thought, I suppose it’s just “Germany” now. It had taken two months for him to get back to the theater headquarters of the Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily, or VVS. He had been sent to the rear for refresher training on the MiG-21R before he was able to return to service. His previous mount, the MiG-25R, was in precious short supply and the Soviets were relying more and more on the older model. While the aircraft might not be as impressive, his promotion was something he could take pride in. He was now the executive officer of the 100th Independent Reconnaissance Aviation Squadron.
Today’s mission was to fly into Luxembourg and see what NATO was up to. Soviet leadership believed that NATO was taking the time to rally forces in the Low Countries for a counterattack, but as yet, they had not been able to find the major concentrations. The Americans found success in using their space shuttle to intercept photo-recon satellites, so it was up to units like the 100th Recon to pick up the slack.
Germes wasn’t going to be taking pictures of anything, however. Instead, his job was to lead a flight of four MiG-21s into hostile territory and dare the enemy to engage their ground radars. If Germes didn’t detect any ground radars, he was sure that they would feel the touch of the American E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system, or AWACS, aircraft. That airborne radar would vector fighters to intercept the MiGs.
Typically, he would fly a pass like this on his own. But the NATO forces had started to more or less ignore single MiG-21s coming over the border. If Germes wanted to poke NATO into action, he was going to need a bigger stick. The other three MiGs were that stick. They were MiG-21PFM strike fighters of the 88th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment. They were mostly there for decoration, to give the mission the appearance of an attack. But if they found any targets of opportunity, they would strike.
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