Yep, he did. IIRC, he was also commander of his squadron, one of two in the EAF at the time. I have a picture of them lined up on the tarmac I'll tag you once I find it and post it. Have so many pics and even organized to a certain extent but still, very tough to find them sometimes since there's thousands spanning 15 years including many that were scanned from paper to digital.
Yes, pretty much. Although the Indian MiG-29K might also be included in that same category since it's essentially the same thing as these Ms but can also land on carriers. So in some sense, it might be considered more capable because of that naval factor.
But like
@Ghostkiller said, these Ms are essentially MiG-35s and that was what the EAF went to order right after the unveiling of the MiG-35 in Russia back in 2015. However, the MiG-35 included the Zhuk-AE AESA radar but it wasn't ready at the time and the EAF wanted to upgrade as soon as possible and actually (according to some publications out there) were promise the upgrade of the current radar which is the Zhuk-ME (PESA) radar to the Zhuk-AE within 2 years of the deliveries. It hasn't happened yet.
The MiG-29M/M2 in the EAF (and Algerian Air Force) also lack the built-in target designator which was also a feature of the MiG-35. Instead, they rely on the T-220 pod to use as a target designator, so they essentially do have that feature, it's just not built-in like in the MiG-35. Those 2 items are what differentiate the MiG-20M (single seat) & MiG-29M2 (two-seat variant) from the MiG-35.
It was also beneficial for the EAF because the cost of these amazing fighters was around $40 million per, which is why the EAF was able to stack up with around 50 of them on the first order and plan to purchase quite a bit more as soon as they put CAATSA to bed.
BTW,
@The SC ,
@Ghostkiller ,
@Philip the Arab ,
@Ramses Akhenaten Ahmose ,
@Hydration ,
@ARCH٤R ,
@aymanop1522 and others whom are concerned about the EAF acquiring the Meteor missile, do you fellas remember we were talking about this and even on Wikipedia it said all three Arab countries; Egypt, Saudiya AND QATAR have placed orders for the meteor missiles and are still waiting for delivery?
Take a look at this damned pic and tell me this doesn't boil your blood like it does mine and convince you even more that they will do everything possible to keep that missile away from the EAF. There is absolutely no reason why they're not currently in EAF inventory UNLESS, the rafales have not been upgraded to the F3-R standard yet? Those would be the only 2 reasons and both stink to high heII especially this pic below. Totally unworthy with an airspace the size of our Cairo to fly and defend. Just ridiculous.
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