Russia's MiG-35 fighter meets Indian contract requirements

Russia's export MiG-35 Fulcrum-F jet fighter corresponds to all the requirements of an Indian tender aimed at acquiring a series of fighter jets, a department head for Russia's state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Monday.

Sergei Kornyev, the department head of Russia's Air Force special equipment and services, made the announcement after the Farnborough Air Show outside London ended on Sunday.

In August 2007, India set an $11 billion tender for the delivery of 126 fighter aircraft. The world's largest aircraft manufacturers are bidding for the tender, including France's Dassault Aviation with its Rafale, U.S. Lockheed Martin with its F-16 Fighting Falcon and Boeing with the F-18 Super Hornet, Sweden's Saab with its most up-to-date Gripen aircraft, and the European Eurofighter offering the Typhoon.


"The requirements of the tender are quite rigid, but we have already held three evaluation tests, and we believe we have offered an aircraft which entirely corresponds to the tender requirements," Kornyev said.

Russia's MiG-35 Fulcrum-F is a highly maneuverable, single-seat multirole air superiority fighter, an export version of the MiG-29M OVT (Fulcrum F). The plane was first officially presented during the Aero India 2007 air show.

"Of course, the buyers will make the final decision. We are sure that we will participate in this tender until the end, and we hope we will win," Kornyev added.

click on graphic to enlarge

Russia has had a long defense relationship with India and the Russian fighters are cheaper than the western competitors.

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Mig: the high-flying family

22 August, 2009, 16:38

One of Russia's oldest and most famous aircraft, the Mig, was the star of the MAKS air show on Friday. Despite being 70 years old, the Mig remains a world leader in military aviation.

Since the first MIG took to the skies about 70 years ago, these Russian planes have become one of the world's most heralded fighters. Thousands of them were used by the Soviet Union in the Second World War.

The MiG strikes a mean and moody figure when stationary on the ground but once airborne it cuts the figure of a bird of prey; graceful yet deadly.

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During a production run of more than seven decades, roughly 60,000 of these flying beasts have been produced in countless varying forms.

Piloting these machines not only requires exceptional flying skill but also intensive physical training. Only the best are allowed to sit in the cockpit. Test-pilot Andrey Shishov is one of the chosen few.

“Up in the sky a pilot cannot do without a special helmet and this antigravity equipment. At a height of several thousand kilometers, a nine-unit strong G-force means you feel like you weigh nine times more than you really do, so not 75 kilos for example but 600-700,” he explains.

“Here compressed air comes into the suit and covers the legs and stomach. The point is to stop blood flowing to the extremities, otherwise the legs will go numb,” Andrey demonstrates the flight suit. 

Andrey’s favorite is the Mig-29. Designed in the USSR to counter America's latest offerings, it still remains the company’s most popular plane around globe, where it's in use in 25 countries.

The Mig-29 is able to destroy air targets up to 200 kilometers away at all altitudes and in any weather. It can fire at four air or ground targets simultaneously while tracking ten others at the same time.

The latest addition to the family is the SMT model.

“It is a new development, due to new modern requirements for war,” says test-pilot Stanislav Gorbunov. “There are new radars, modern avionics, navigation systems, which allow our weapons to be more exact, while also providing safety in difficult weather conditions and during the night.”

But even this jet seems technologically outdated when compared to the corporation’s latest offering.

The Mig-35 is faster, more effective, safer – and many say, greater than anything the company's put into the skies before. The main feature is it’s groundbreaking radar design based on space technology. It allows the aircraft to perform all-weather precision ground strikes and aerial reconnaissance and conduct independent multi-role missions.

Pavel Vlasov is the senior test-pilot for the Mig corporation. As a hero of Russia – awarded for courage and heroism – he has spent thousands of hours roaring through the skies. Pavel says he took to the heavens before he even started driving a car.

“Everything about this plane is top notch, the latest technologies have been applied, things unheard of five or seven years ago. It would have been impossible even to imagine the equipment and weapons that this aircraft has today. To fit so many modern war gadgets in such a small plane, is unbelievable,” he explains with enthusiasm.

“And it is possible for one person to control all this effectively, and more importantly, to stay free for making decisions.” But this is not a revolution, just an evolution,” Pavel concludes.

And as the evolution continues this latest Mig fighter will certainly not be its last.

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Russia's Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier being refitted for Indian navy

Editor's Note: The Russians are also trying to sell the Indians the new MiG-35 fighter in a run-off with the US, France, and Sweden. The Russian MiG-35 is an upagrade to the MiG-29 . The naval version of the Mig-29 is included in the sale of the Admiral Gorshkov cruiser. 

The Russians are likely to win the contract with India because they have a 40 year history with the Indian Air force (IAF), their fighter is more current 4.5 generation than the competiion and costs about two-thirds of the comepetitor's aircraft at under $40 million per unit. Of course, it's not over until the Fat Lady sings. 

    

 

Admiral Gorshkov cruiser

Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Russia’s Arkhangelsk Region will help solve the problem with the unfortunate Admiral Gorshkov cruiser. The history of the ship began during the times of the Soviet Union. The aircraft carrier was rusting in the White Sea for a long time after the break-up of the USSR. Now Russian ship-builders seem to be unable to remake the cruiser for the Indian Navy.

Russia’s major shipyard, Sevmash Enterprise, has been working on the ship for several years, to remake it into a mini cruiser for the Indian navy. The execution of the Indian order was pushed back from 2008 to 2012 due to the inaccurate evaluation of the production cost. 

Originally, the contract was evaluated at $620 million. Afterwards, India was supposed to pay $1.5 billion taking account of an additional delivery of 16 deck-based MiG-29K jets. Nowadays, the cost of the project makes up $2.5 billion. 

The cruiser was delivered to Sevmash Enterprise in the city of Severodvinsk at the end of the 1990s. The command of Russia’s Pacific Navy sold two similar vessels to China and Korea in 1994 for a very low price. The Chinese quickly made an entertainment complex from the Russian mini cruiser – the vessel still brings very good money in China. 

India evinced interest in the Admiral Gorshkov in the year 2000. It was agreed in 2003 that Russia would give away the cruiser to India for free, whereas India in its turns would place an order with Russia to remake the cruise into an aircraft-carrier. 

It later became known that the cost of the contract was considerably underestimated – that was probably the reason why India signed it so quickly. 

President Medvedev strictly ordered to complete the project for India on time. Nikolai Kalistratov, the director of Sevmash Enterprise, explained it to the president that India originally “ordered a cheap car and wanted Russia to make a Mercedes out of it.” 

Medvedev’s visit showed that the Admiral Gorshkov will never stay in Russia and that it will have to become “an expensive Mercedes” for India. 

Andrey Mikhailov
Severodvinsk
Pravda.Ru

http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/09-07-2009/108031-admiral_gorshkov-0

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