New Russian Fighter (MiG-29K) For Indian Navy Takes Off
The first fighter aircraft designed and developed in Russia after the break-up of the Soviet Union — the MiG 29 K/KUB for the Indian Navy — took off on its inaugural flight at the Zhukovskiy test centre here on Monday.

The first flight version of the ship borne fighters, on order from the Indian Navy for its carrier INS Vikramaditya, took off on a cold winter morning with the tell-tale black smoke but dispelled all doubts after a flawless 20-minute test flight.

India will receive the first serially produced aircraft in June this year as part of the 16 fighter jets deal. While the deal provides that an extra 30 aircraft can be procured later, MiG expressed its willingness to supply as many fighters as India wants on the eve of the test flight.

“The deal is for 16 aircraft but we can give any quantity required by India,” Director of the ‘Mikoyan Design Bureau’ Vladimir Barkovskiy said.

While the multi-role air superiority fighter MiG 29 K is the first major project to come out from the drawing board to serial production in post-Soviet Russia, the MiG Corporation is confident of pitching in its MiG 35 fighter for the Indian Air Force’s Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) requirement of 126 fighters.

“It (the test flight) is important not just for MiG but the Russian aviation as a whole. We had to make the whole aircraft, including avionics, from the scratch,” Barkovskiy said.

While the naval aircraft is named similarly, it is very different from the MiG 29s serving the IAF.

“It is an amazing aircraft to fly with completely new systems and the new digital fly by wire system. I would be happy to fly it anyway with Indian pilots,” MiG test pilot Mikhail Belyaev said after the test flight.

With the delivery of the first aircraft in June, the Indian Navy will begin test flights to determine that all requirements are fulfilled. The first batch of six new MiG 29 K/KUB fighters will actually land in India to be based in Goa only by November. “We will be carrying out tests of all equipment on board the aircraft and will conduct flight tests by Indian pilots after June,” Officer in Charge of the MiG 29 K overseeing team, Captain J Mahapatra said.

Features of the aircraft include a fully digitised ‘glass’ cockpit, improved engine protection against ingestion of foreign particles (like birds), a multi-mode radar and increased range due to increase in internal fuel capacity. The aircraft, the first bought by the navy after the Sea Harriers, will also be capable of playing the role of an air refueler. The contract with MiG will ensure that the navy gets the entire spectrum of services, including a full mission simulator.

While the navy will be getting 12 MiG 29 K single-seater aircraft and 4 MiG 29 KUB double-seater trainer aircraft, officials say that all of them will have full operational capabilities. The trainer version will be 95 per cent similar to the single seater but with a slightly reduced operational range.

MiG 35 to be fielded at Bangalore Aero India

Moscow: Russia will field its entrant for India’s multi-billion dollar multi-role combat aircraft contract — the MiG 35 — at the Bangalore Aero India show in February to compete with the US, Swedish and French and European fighters. The MiG corporation, which is promoting the aircraft, made its move just ahead of President Putin’s India visit by announcing that the MiG 35 will carry out a ‘full scale presentation’ at the air show. After the maiden flight of the MiG 29 K for the Indian Navy on Monday Director of Mikoyan Design Bureau Vladimir Barkovskiy said, the MiG 29 K for the Indian Navy will also be present at the air show. He also hinted that MiG would be signing a ‘major deal’ during the air show.