The tactical role Russia's MiG-31 combat jet is playing against Ukraine

Developed for the Soviet Air Force, the MiG-31 is one of the world's fastest combat jets.

Now operating with the Russian Air Force, what tactical role is the aircraft playing against Ukraine?

Peter Wilson, a senior defence policy analyst for the think tank RAND Corporation, told Forces News "they've been using it in a long-range stand-off role, and have had some successful intercepts of a couple of Ukrainian aircraft".

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The MiG-31 was developed as part of an overall programme to provide the Soviet air defences with the ability to meet the threat posed by Nato low-level strike aircraft and cruise missiles.

Developed as a successor to a MiG-25, the MiG-31 was also intended to fulfil high-altitude and high-speed interception.

The MiG-25 was "an aircraft optimised to fly at Mach 2.5 at roughly 60,000ft to intercept what we were going to build back in the early 1960s called the B-70 Bomber", Mr Wilson added.

"It's a big powerful piece of iron that can go fast and straight," he said.

The MiG-31 can fly higher, faster and farther than the Ukrainian air force's best Sukhoi Su-27 interceptors.

He added, however, it's "quite clear that this air-launched version of the SS-26 is not operational in any large numbers because they've used it, again in the public domain, in a very small number of attacks against Ukrainian targets".

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