Russia delivers 4 MiG-29 fighters to India

[Contrarian]

Russia delivers 4 MiG-29 fighters to India

BANGALORE (India), February 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has delivered the first four MiG-29 Fulcrum-D naval fighters to India and will supply the remaining 12 aircraft by the end of 2009, the head of Russia's MiG aircraft maker said on Thursday.

Russia and India signed a contract on January 20, 2004, stipulating the supply of 12 single-seat MiG-29K and four two-seat MiG-29KUB to New Delhi as part of a $750 million deal to deliver the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier currently being retrofitted in Russia for the Indian Navy.

"The first four aircraft have been inspected by Indian technical experts and the [Indian] pilots are taking a five-month flight training course," Mikhail Pogosyan said at a news conference on the sidelines of the Aero India 2009 show in the southern city of Bangalore.

Pogosyan also said the remaining fighters would be delivered to India by the yearend, as stipulated by the contract.

The aircraft will be later deployed on board the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, which is due to enter service in the Indian navy in 2012 as the INS Vikramaditya.

RIA Novosti - World - Russia delivers 4 MiG-29 fighters to India

 

[duhastmish]

hahahaha hilarious can they be anymore slower than this ? mig 29 lol and they are talking about mig-35 to buy for india

 

[Moscow]

hahahaha hilarious can they be anymore slower than this ? mig 29 lol and they are talking about mig-35 to buy for india

sir this new contract is signed on 2004 and the delivery is on schedule,if russia supplies the rest by the end of 2009 actually they will be ahead of schedule.
its mig-29KUB is not mig29 for the airforce,from may 2008 the indian staff have undergone training in these aircrafts in russia.

the mig-35 is a totally different issue.

thanx

 

[duhastmish]

ohh sorry for that comment then,

 

[duhastmish]

MiGs Are Crap And Are Fading Away
February 10, 2009: All 290 Russian MiG-29 fighters have been grounded for over two months, since one of them crashed last December 5th. The cause was structural failure (the tail separated, in flight, from the rest of the aircraft). The Russian Air Force has been investigating, but has not announced anything yet. It's believed that poor maintenance and a shortage of spare parts is the main cause for a string of similar incidents. The MiG-29 has been an increasingly troublesome aircraft, while the Su-27 (and its many derivatives) has flourished.

But all Russian fighters have suffered from years of poor maintenance and lack of upgrades. Russian Air Force generals have warned that, without a large infusion of money for upgrades, they will lose more and more of these aircraft to old age over the next decade. Currently, Russia only has about 650 fighters, including the grounded MiG-29s.

The MiG-29 entered Russian service in 1983, as the answer to the American F-16. Some 1,600 MiG-29s have been produced so far, with about 900 of them exported. The 22 ton aircraft is roughly comparable to the F-16, but it depends a lot on which version of either aircraft you are talking about. Russia is making a lot of money upgrading MiG-29s, mainly for export customers. Not just adding new electronics, but also making the airframe more robust. The MiG-29 was originally rated at 2,500 total flight hours. At that time (early 80s), Russia expected MiG-29s to fly about a hundred or so hours a year. But some export customers flew them at nearly twice that rate, and now Russia is offering to spiff up those airframes so that the aircraft can fly up to 4,000 hours, with more life extensions upgrades promised. This won't be easy, as the MiG-29 has a history of unreliability and premature breakdowns (both mechanical and electronic). Compared to Western aircraft, like the F-16, the MiG-29 is available for action about two thirds as much. While extending the life of the MiG-29 into the 2030s is theoretically possible, actually doing so will be real breakthrough in Russian aircraft capabilities. The way things are going now, the exported MiG-29 will still be flying, while those in the Russian Air Force will be grounded.

MiG combat aircraft have a long history of poor design and nasty flaws that limited their usefulness. But the basic stats of MiGs have always been good, and the idea was to build and use lots of them all at once to overwhelm the enemy. MiGs were not designed with experienced pilots in mind, but rather for a guy who can carry out some basic maneuvers, and do what he's told by his controller. The makers of the Su-27 realized that air combat had changed, and quality now trumped quantity. MiG tried to make that transition with the MiG-29, but was unable to shed its old habits.

story of the falling migs

 

[Contrarian]

Now go and read about the MiG 29K.