Having signed a contract in 1978, Algeria was the first export customer for MiG-25 Foxbat. MiG-25PDs are still operational today.
Algeria was the first export customer for the MiG-25 (ASCC/NATO code “Foxbat”). The related contract was signed in 1978, and that same year a group of personnel and pilots completed conversion training in Krasnodar. As a result, on November 1, 1979, during celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the Algerian revolution, the first of eight MiG-25Ps, three MiG-25Rs, and two MiG-25PUs were unveiled to the public.
The type entered service with two units: the 120th (Independent) Squadron, flying MiG-25Ps from Bechar, Tindouf, and Ouaragla, and the 515th (Reconnaissance) Squadron, based at Ain Oussera AB.
Although they participated in multiple “combat-like” operations, Algerian Foxbats never saw real combat. They conducted power demonstration and reconnaissance operations over Morocco and the Spanish coast in the 1980s. In 1988, they flew CAPs during the PLO Congress in Algeria. Beginning in 1986, MiG-25Rs were also used for reconnaissance missions in the conflict with Islamic extremists.
The fleet should’ve been bolstered through the addition of two batches. Although there are few details available, it appears that by 1997, up to 20 MiG-25PDS, 6 MiG-25RB/RBShs, and at least one MiG-25PU had been acquired; the majority of them had also been upgraded to more sophisticated standards in Ukraine by the mid-1990s.
The fleet is meanwhile quite dated, and thus it was expected that MiG-29SMTs and Sukhoi Su-30MKA and Su-30MKRs would replace the remaining interceptors in the late 2000s. However, because of the scandal in which the MIG RSK delivered second-hand instead of newly-built MiG-29s in 2007 (all of these were returned to Russia a year later), and because the Su-30 lacks the QRA capability, the 120th Squadron is still operational and keeping two MiG-25PDS’ each on alert at Bechar, Tindouf, and Ouragla until today.
From time to time, they even take part in joint exercises with NATO members.