JON LAKE
An agreement was signed on Friday for manufacture of the redesigned nose and wing for the new carrier-borne MiG-29 by the Sokol aircraft building plant (Nizhniy Novgorod).
Sokol was previously responsible for production of the two-seat MiG-29UB. The MiG-29K is on order by the Indian Navy, which requires 40-50 for its new carrier, the refurbished and converted Gorshkov. The Gorshkov, a former STOVL carrier, is being transferred free, though India is paying for the cost of conversion. The total value of the Indian Navy carrier package is understood to be $1.5 billion, while the cost of the 66 ship-based MiG-29K fighters and pilot training accounts for $700 million of this.
The MiG-29K will equip two naval fighter regiments. More than 60 land-based MiG-29s are in Indian service.
Work on a carrier-borne MiG-29 began in the late 1970s, and a prototype MiG-29K (known as the 9-31), based on the lightweight, multirole MiG-29M, first flew on 23 June 1988. The dramatic pruning of the Soviet carrier programme, which left only one of the four planned ships, led to the decision to acquire only one aircraft type. The compact, multirole MiG-29K was the obvious choice, but the larger Su-27K was chosen instead, despite being a navalised single-role Su-27 interceptor, with limited air-to-ground capability.
Expensive
The lightweight welded aluminium lithium airframe of the MiG-29M and MiG-29K proved too expensive for the cash-strapped Russian air forces following the end of the Cold War, and the new-build MiG-29M was replaced by the MiG-29SMT - an upgrade of existing first-generation MiG-29 airframes.
When India began looking for a new fighter to equip its planned new carriers, it rejected the Su-27K as being too large for its requirements, and urged Mikoyan to complete development of the MiG-29K. Instead, MiG designed a new MiG-29K (possibly known as the 9-41) which combined the airframe of the MiG-29SMT with the folding wing, increased area double-slotted flaps, strengthened landing gear, and carrier landing equipment of the original MiG-29K. The new aircraft also has a digital FBW flight control system, navalised RD-33 Series 3M engines, and a Zhuk-M radar.
A combat-capable two-seat trainer version (with a stepped rear cockpit) has also been designed as the MiG-29KUB (9-47), with studies also completed for reconnaissance, EW and tanker sub-variants. MiG-29UB trainers had a poor forward view from the rear cockpit, and lack radar. Some OKB drawings showed a revised single-seat configuration, with the wing-fold further inboard, and with an upward folding nose radome and folding tailplanes, further reducing the deck ‘footprint' of the aircraft. The exact configuration of the aircraft ordered by India remains uncertain, although a land-based multi-role derivative of the MiG-29K has been offered to Malaysia as the MiG-29MRCA.
Source: Flight Daily News
