Do not attempt to lie to the Americans, they will believe you and widen the technological trench in response.

I can only imagine the looks of both confusion and relief on the US technicians' faces when they analyzed Viktor Belenko's MiG-25P after his defection in 1976.

The things they discovered about the MiG-25, which Western observers had inaccurately assumed to be a highly maneuverable and adaptable air superiority fighter based on it's appearance alone include:

-It was built hastily and using outdated and questionable construction practices in non-critical areas.
-It's electronics still used vacuum tubes despite solid-state electronics being standard in the rest of world by 1976.
-It was made of steel, making it fat as Hell, weighing 64,000 lbs. empty vs the F-15C's 28,000 lbs. empty.
-As a consequence of it being a fucking chunk of steel, it had incredibly poor maneuverability and could not withstand the same acceleration forces other fighters of the era could.
-It's top speed slightly above Mach 3, which the Soviets used as a bragging point to claim that it could catch the US's SR-71 reconnaissance planes, damages the engines beyond repair.
-Because of it's absurd weight and engines, it's fuel consumption was similarly absurd, severely limiting it's range to being less than half of other fighters of the time.
-It was also brand-new, making it an example of cutting-edge Soviet technology of the time.