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A MiG-29K of the Indian Navy on the deck of INS Vikramaditya
The Mikoyan MiG-29K is a modern supersonic jet and India should be very proud to have this exceptional aircraft. India has over 110 upgraded Fulcrums, including forty-five MiG-29Ks in the Naval Air Arm.
How can we classify the MiG-29 as a close aerial combat fighter? First – the MiG-29 has unparalleled agility and superb aerodynamics. Second, it has a very powerful thrust to weight ratio. And lastly – it has a helmet mounted sight, something the Western powers copied later. The U.S. Air Force did not acquire a similar capability until 2003.
Agility A Key Factor
The MiG-29 has a 28 deg/sec instantaneous turn rate when compared to the modern F-16’s which sports a 26 deg/sec numbers. Thanks to the MiG-29s incredible aerodynamics in combination with its old school mechanical control system, it has unmatched agility in comparison to even modern jets as it can attain very high angles of attack. Inside ten nautical miles the MiG is hard to defeat, and with the IRST, helmet mounted sight and with the formidable R-73 missile it can’t be beaten. Even against the latest Block 50 F-16s the MiG-29 is virtually invulnerable in the close-in scenario. In flight, the high thrust and low drag of this remarkable machine allows it to accelerate at low level during a 9g turn.
Dario Leone writes in the Aviationist, "Conceived to fill the technological gap between Russian and U.S. fighters, the MiG-29 has been one of the last cutting edge fighters produced by the then Soviet Union."
The MiG-29 takeoff speed is 162 mph to 174 mph (260 km/h to 280 km/h) and it has an extremely low take off distance. The MiG can take off from a strip of only 240m (that’s 787 ft). The F-16 Fighting Falcon on the other hand needs twice the amount. Besides – it can also take off from unpaved runways. That is thanks to its rugged landing gear and protective air intake. They open and close automatically. And even with closed air intakes the MiG-29 is able to do an afterburner take off. Soviet war planners expected to encounter damaged or under-prepared airstrips during a rapid armored advance. It is also comparably easy to maintain and robust – made in a way that technician can do their job with gloves in India for example. Regardless of the Design Bureau – Mikoyan/MiG is the most famous one, Sukhoi, Tupolev, Ilyushin and Yakovlev are the others – all Soviet fighter jets share this common pedigree: Ease of maintenance, simplicity of the design, toughness and the ability to operate from rough, unpaved airstrips of the shortest possible length was the hallmark of all Soviet designed fighter jets.
But There Are Shortcomings
Now what are its shortcomings? There are a few. Mainly two major weaknesses – Fuel/Range and Radar capability. The most obvious limitation of the MiG-29 is the aircraft’s limited internal fuel capacity which is 3,500 kg (4,400 kg with a centerline tank). The MiG-29 had no air-to-air refueling capability, and its external tank is both speed and maneuver limited. If a mission started with 4,400 kg of fuel, start-up, taxing and take off took 400 kg, 1,000 kg were required for diversion to an alternate airfield 90 km away, and 500 kg for the engagement, including one minute of afterburner, leaving only 2,500 kg of fuel. Eventually, taking into account all possible flight levels the entire radius reduced to around 800-900 km. That is woefully shot for a big country with long borders like ours.
The Radar
The MiG-29s radar has poor display, giving poor situational awareness, and this is compounded by awful cockpit ergonomics. Fulcrum pilots are required to stare down at their cockpit instruments far more than those of Western fighters with modern Head’s Up Displays, and the throttle was not integrated into the stick. The radar had reliability and look down/shoot down problems, hence its poor discrimination between targets flying in formation, moreover it can't lock onto the target in trail, only onto the lead.
Poor Service Life
Like most Soviet-era fighters, while the MiG was designed to withstand rugged handling, it wasn’t intended to have a long service life, just two thousand five hundred hours compared to the six thousand that is typical of U.S. fighters. MiG-29 airframes deteriorated rapidly later in life, and have required extensive and expensive maintenance to keep flying. India spends a huge amount of money per year per MiG-29 to keep them flyable.
In a sense, the MiG-29 combined fourth generation engineering with third generation hardware. But despite all these limitations, the Fulcrum is the perfect fighter to fly. In fact, thanks to its superb aerodynamics and helmet mounted sight, the MiG-29 is an exceptional fighter for close-in combat, even compared to aircraft like the F-15, F-16 and F/A-18. (With inputs from The Aviationist, Wikipedia, National Interest)
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