Summary
Have Doughnut was the name of a Defense Intelligence Agency project whose purpose was to evaluate and exploit a MiG-21 “Fishbed-E” that the United States Air Force acquired in 1967 from Israel. Israel acquired the aircraft on August 16, 1966, when Iraqi Air Force pilot Capt. Munir Redfa, in a defection pre-arranged by the Israeli Mossad Intelligence Agency, flew it to Israel during a training flight.
In this multi-service project, Air Force and United States Navy pilots evaluated the MiG-21, redesignated as the “YF-110”, in a variety of situations. The project’s name came from the “doughnut” sight on the F-4 Phantom’s canopy used to aim at the opposing aircraft. The inability of the Navy to disseminate the results of this highly classified project to combat pilots was part of the impetus to create the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School. The Have Doughnut tests were conducted at Area 51.