India commissioned MiG-29K/KUB fighters

22.03.2010
Indian Navy commissioned first parcel of deck-based fighters MiG-29K/KUB. Triumphant ceremony took place at naval base Hansa, India.

OJSC Russian Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation MiG delivered the first parcel of MiG-29K/KUB fighters to Indian Navy in Dec 2009. Indian pilots and maintenance personnel have been trained in the aircraft operation in Russia. The fighters joined squadron named Black Panthers.

Indian party was represented by Arakkaparambil Kurian Antony, Minister of Defense and Adm. Nirmal Verma, Navy Commander-in-Chief.

Commission of Russian fighters MiG-29K/KUB into Indian Navy will promote increasing of Indian defense power and further strengthening of strategic partnership between our countries, pointed out Indian defense minister.

Russia was represented at the ceremony by Viktor Khristenko, Minister of Industry and Trade; Alexander Kadakin, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Russia to Republic of India; Denis Manturov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade; Alexander Fomin, Deputy Director of Federal Service for Military Industrial Cooperation; and Mikhail Pogosian, Director General of OJSC MiG.

According to Mikhail Pogosian, "commission of new aircrafts into Indian Navy is an important milestone of MiG-29K/KUB long-term program. OJSC MiG continues execution of delivery contract of those aircrafts to India in accordance with schedule approved by the orderer".

Evolution of partnership with Indian aviation industry is one of the high-priority objectives of Russian military aircraft engineering, underlined Director General of OJSC MiG.

Delivery contract of multirole ship-based fighters to Indian Navy was signed by OJSC MiG on Jan 20, 2004. It provides delivery of 12 single-seaters MiG-29K and 4 two-seaters MiG-29KUB, as well as training of the orderer's pilots and maintenance personnel, delivery of simulators, spare parts, and aftersales service at the orderer's place.

Deck-based fighters MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB are 4++ generation all-weather multirole aircrafts designed for air defense of ship divisions, gaining air domination, hitting sea and land surface targets by guided high-precision weapons day and night.

First flight of experimental fighter MiG-29KUB was held in Jan 2007. Production aircraft got off the ground for the first time in March 2008. Main technical and technological innovations applied in fighters MiG-29K/KUB are the following:

– advanced frame with high portion of composite materials;

– folding high-lift wing improving takeoff and landing characteristics;

– digital quad-redundant wire/remote flight control system;

– considerably lowered radar signature;

– increased combat load;

– in-flight refueling system and enlarged capacity of fuel system.

MiG-29K/KUB fighters have improved performance characteristics and augmented reliability of all aggregates, systems and units. As compared to previously produced fighters, sortie rate of MiG-29K/KUB is twice as much, and flight hour cost is 2.5 times less.

Avionics of the fighters is based on open architecture principle. Each aircraft is equipped with multifunctional multimode pulse/doppler on-board radar Zhuk-ME. It provides tracking of 10 targets and simultaneous firing upon four of them by missiles.

MiG-29K/KUB fighters are equipped with state-of-the-art multichannel optical radar and target designator for passive homing heads of anti-radar missiles.

Armament of the aircrafts comprises air-to-air and air-to-surface guided missiles, glide bombs, rockets, air bombs and built-in 30-mm gun. On orderer's request armament complex can be supplemented by new air-launched weapons.

Full set of education facilities was designed for MiG-29K/KUB fighters as well; it includes mission simulator with mobility system.

Source: Industry Weekly, photo: MiG-29K fighters (snariad.ru)