The new MFI fighter is due to fly in May, but some feel it should not go into production

Published: 5/19/1999

According to a report in the ‘Nezavisimaya Gazeta", the Moscow Aviation Production Association (MAPO) has said that the first flight of the MFI fighter (Project 1-44) may take place in May 1999. The report added that the aircraft, which was first seen on December 24th 1998, is currently undergoing ground tests, during which 80% of the fighter"s systems have already been checked. This is the fourth date for the MFI"s first flight, which has been postponed for several years, owing to delays caused by insufficient funding: a situation recently reinforced by the ‘high priority in the medium term" announcement for the MFI program. Newspaper reports suggest that the problems concerning the aircraft most recently surfaced in January 1999, allegedly comprising a ‘deficiency in the controls for the aircraft"s aerodynamic surfaces". For the Mikoyan bureau, soon to disappear into an unequal partnership with Sukhoi, the flight of the MFI in the near future is important not only for the Ministry of Defence, but as a matter of prestige for the Mikoyan bureau and the Russian air force. It is reported, however, that members of the MFI development team believe it ‘inadvisable" to hurry the production of the aircraft. They consider that the resources and technologies should be applied to the development of a sixth-generation aircraft, carried out jointly by Russia"s design bureaux. The air force, operating under acute budgetary constraints, is reported to agree with this approach. This is particularly because the work to replace the Russian long range bombing capability, with precision weapons provided by the Tu-95MS and the Tu-160, has now been severely scaled down, owing to lack of funding. The last deliveries of combat aircraft to the air force took place in 1992 and are supposed to resume in two years. According to Mr Anatoliy Kornukov, air force Commander-in-Chief, the main task until that time will be to modernise the equipment currently in commission (Concise Aerospace, May 1999). Such modernisation primarily involves addressing the air force"s principle offensive weakness, which is its lack of fighter aircraft with multi-role capability. This involves the conversion of the main fighters - the MiG-29 and the Su-27 - into multifunction aircraft, capable of both air superiority and strike roles. Flight tests of the MiG-29SMT, which will become the first serially produced multirole fighter in air force units, should end by June 1999. According to the ‘Nezavisimaya Gazeta", launches of all the existing missiles have been carried out from the aircraft and tests of new weapons systems have begun. Work has also begun on modernising the Russian air force"s main interceptor fighter, the MiG-31. The multirole SU-27IB, which is currently in the final stages of development, is currently undergoing tests at the state flight test centre.

Article ID: 525