RSK MiG is in talks with India for modernised and new MiG-29s

Published: 3/17/2000

RSK MiG is reportedly in negotiations with India on the modernisation of the in-service IAF MiG-29 Fulcrums and a probable sale of 20-30 more such aircraft. These talks parallel those on the sale of up to 60 MiG-29K carrier fighters to equip the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov whose sale to India was agreed in general more than a year ago. In addition, RSK MiG also has future hopes for sales of 30-40 more MiG-29s for the Indian Navy to equip the defence ships (ADS), a series of Indian built light aircraft carriers. In October last year, fierce competition was reported between Sukhoi and MiG for an expected order, valued at $600-800m, for the aviation group of the Admiral Gorshkov. This rivalry was intensified by reports that India intended to buy an additional aircraft carrier, and the winner of the first contract was likely to obtain the second contract. MiG believed then that the next carrier would be smaller than the Admiral Gorshkov and India will therefore favour the navalised version of the MiG-29, a lighter aircraft than the Sukhoi Su-33 chosen by the Russian Navy. This optimism has been well founded as, according to sources in RSK MiG, India has three reasons for purchasing extra MiG-29s and to modify the existing fleet. The first is delays with the delivery of Su-30MK multirole fighters. So far, Sukhoi has delivered only 18 Su-30Ks with an inadequate ground strike capability. The second reason is that early-version MiG-29s also had limited ground strike capability and need modification to compete effectively in air-to-air strikes. Finally, India wants uniformity between the existing and planned MiG-29s, particularly for crew training. It is known that IAF wants the cockpits of the new and modified MiG-29s to have standard analogue instruments to cut down expenses and avoid retraining of crews. Changes in the cockpit will most likely be confined to replacement of the outdated monochrome radar screen with a modern, multifunctional display that will facilitate the use of the Phazatron Zhuk-M radar, which will replace the RLPK-29 seen on the early version MiG-29. The Zhuk-M is an updated version of the Zhuk multimode radar tested on the MiG-29M and MiG-29K prototypes. The M variant will have a new, more powerful digital signal processor. It is thought that the IndAF and Indian Navy MiG-29s will have a unified cockpit, with differences confined only to specific navigational and landing equipment for the shipborne aircraft. Installation of the Zhuk-M will make the MiG-29 a truly multifunctional tactical fighter able to fire with X-31A anti-ship, X-31P anti-radiation, X-29 and RV-AEE 'fire-and-forget' beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles. The newly built MiG-29s for India will also have modified Klimov RD-33 engines with non-smoke combustion chambers.

Article ID: 1697