Indian Navy to induct 4 'lethal' MiG-29K into its fleet

The Indian Navy is all set to receive a shot in the arm with the induction of four MiG-29 K combat aircraft into its fleet here on Friday.

The formal ceremony to induct the MiG-29K ' Air Dominance Fighter' aircraft would take place at INS Hansa, the Indian Navy's premier naval station. With the induction of the advanced aircraft, the Indian Navy would join an elite club of navies across the world who have the MiG-29K aircraft in operation.

Talking to mediapersons on the eve of the induction ceremony, Commander Theo Phillis, the commanding officer (CO) of the newly formed squadron 303, which is also known as the 'Black Panthers', described it as a proud moment for the Indian Navy.

When asked about the difference between the Sea Harrier, which are currently in operation in the Navy, Phillis said the MiG-29K would offer a whole lot of other advantages to the navy.

"In MiG-29K, the range of target detention is more. Though the Sea Harrier is still a capable aircraft, the MiG-29K is newer and better," he said. "The MiG-29K is more easier and pleasant aircraft to fly," added Captain Surendra Ahuja, commanding officer of INS Hansa.

Captain Ahuja also explained that there are lot of differences between the MiG-29 B (Bravo) that the India Air Force (IAF) has been using and the MiG-29K , which is to be inducted into the Indian Navy.

The MiG 29K is among the latest and most potent fighters designed by the Mikoyan Gurevich bureau. The MiG-29K is equipped with the air-to-air refueling facility, while this is absent in the MiG-29B, Captain Ahuja said.

The IAF's old MiG-29 fighter, which was inducted in the mid eighties, is a third generation pure Air Defence figher, whereas the MiG-29K belongs to the fourth generation, and is capable of fulfilling multiple roles.

The new combat aircraft is more than 30 percent heavier than the old MiG-29.The MiG-29 is equipped with anti-aircraft 'Beyond Visaul Range Missiles, guided Anti-Ship Missiles, 'smart' guided-bombs and rockets that are more lethal and better than the old MiG-29 K's armaments.

It has a folding wing for close parking and reducing ground space, which is an important feature considering the fact that it would deployed on the air craft carrier INS Vikramaditya (formerly Admiral Gorshkov) once it arrives in the later half of 2012.

The aircraft also boasts of state-of-the-art sensor suite that includes a very responsive and capable radar. The pilot's helmet is equipped with the 'Topsight-E' Helmet-mounted Display and Sight. This unique feature would enable the pilot to shoot a target, without turning the whole aircraft, by merely looking at it.

The India Navy is planning to induct a total of 45 MiG-29K's into its fleet, out of which four (16 of those bought from Russia) were delivered at the INS Hansa in December last year.

India, Russia close to PACT on next generation fighter

Late last year, a defence ministry delegation to Sukhoi’s flagship aircraft facility in Siberia became the first Indians to set eyes upon the next-generation fighter that is slated to form the backbone of the future Indian Air Force (IAF). In that first meeting, carefully choreographed by Sukhoi, the new fighter, standing on the tarmac waved a welcome to the Indians, moving all its control fins simultaneously.


The effect, recounts one member of that delegation, was electric. The senior IAF officer there walked silently up to the aircraft and touched it almost incredulously. This was the Sukhoi T-50, the first technology demonstrator of what India terms the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA). Senior defence ministry sources tell Business Standard that — after five years of haggling over the FGFA’s form, capabilities and work-share — a detailed contract on joint development is just around the corner.

The contract, which Bangalore-based Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will sign with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), will commit to building 250 fighters for the IAF and an equal number for Russia. The option for further orders will be kept open. HAL and UAC will be equal partners in a joint venture company, much like the Brahmos JV, that will develop and manufacture the FGFA.

The cost of developing the FGFA, which would be shared between both countries, will be $8-10 billion (Rs 37,000-45,000 crore). Over and above that, say IAF and defence ministry sources, each FGFA will cost Rs 400-500 crore.

Sukhoi’s FGFA prototype, which is expected to make its first flight within weeks, is a true stealth aircraft, almost invisible to enemy radar. According to a defence ministry official, “It is an amazing looking aircraft. It has a Radar Cross Section (RCS) of just 0.5 square metre as compared to the Su-30MKI’s RCS of about 20 square metres.”

[That means that while a Su-30MKI would be as visible to enemy radar as a metal object 5 metres X 4 metres in dimension, the FGFA’s radar signature would be just 1/40th of that.]

A key strength of the 30-35 tonne FGFA would be data fusion; the myriad inputs from the fighter’s infrared, radar, and visual sensors would be electronically combined and fed to the pilots in easy-to-read form.

The FGFA partnership was conceived a decade ago, in 2000, when Sukhoi’s celebrated chief, Mikhail Pogosyan, invited a visiting Indian Air Force officer out to dinner in Moscow. Boris Yeltsin’s disastrous presidency had just ended, and Russia’s near bankruptcy was reflected in the run-down condition of a once-famous restaurant. But, as the IAF officer recounts, the vodka was flowing and Pogosyan was in his element, a string of jokes translated by a female interpreter.

Late that evening Pogosyan turned serious, switching the conversation to a secret project that, officially, did not even exist. Sukhoi, he confided to the IAF officer, had completed the design of a fifth generation fighter, as advanced as America’s F-22 Raptor, which is still the world’s foremost fighter. Russia’s economy was in tatters, but Sukhoi would develop its new, high-tech fighter if India partnered Russia, sharing the costs of developing the fighter at Sukhoi’s plant, Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Organisation (KnAAPO).

Reaching out to India was logical for Russia. During the 1990s — when thousands of Russian military design bureaus starved for funds, and a bankrupt Moscow cancelled 1,149 R&D projects — India’s defence purchases had kept Russia’s defence industry alive, bankrolling the development of the Sukhoi-30 fighter; the Talwar-class stealth frigates; the Uran and Klub ship-borne missiles; and the MiG-21 upgrade.

But co-developing a fifth generation fighter is a different ball game, financially and technologically, and India’s MoD hesitated to sign up. Meanwhile enriched by hydrocarbon revenues, Moscow gave Sukhoi the green light to develop the FGFA, which Russia terms the PAK-FA, the acronym for Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Frontovoi Aviatsy (literally Prospective Aircraft Complex of Frontline Aviation).

Today, Russia is five years into the development of the FGFA. In November 2007, India and Russia signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement on co-developing the fighter, but it has taken two more years to agree upon common specifications, work shares in development, and in resolving issues like Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

The prototype that Sukhoi has built is tailored to Russian Air Force requirements. But the IAF has different specifications and the JV will cater for both air forces, producing two different, but closely related, aircraft. For example, Russia wants a single-seat fighter; the IAF, happy with the Su-30MKI, insists upon a twin-seat fighter with one pilot flying and the other handling the sensors, networks and weaponry.

Negotiations have resolved even this fundamental conflict. India has agreed to buy a mix of about 50 single-seat and 200 twin-seat aircraft. Russia, in turn, will consider buying more twin-seat aircraft to use as trainers. But even as both countries narrow their differences, fresh challenges lie ahead: preparing India’s nascent aerospace industry for the high-tech job of developing and manufacturing a fifth-generation fighter.

(This is the first of a two-part series on the IAF’s fifth-generation fighter)

India, Russia setting up USD 600 million aircraft JV

India and Russia are to invest USD 600 million to set up a joint venture (JV) to produce a medium lift transport aircraft for their armed forces.

While Bangalore based state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will fork out USD 300 million, Russia's United Aircraft Cooperation (UAC) will invest a similar amount for the joint venture which will start rolling out the aircraft by 2017.

Voice of Russia radio said the joint venture coming up with fifty-fifty equity would develop the aircraft at Aviastar-SP plant based in Ulyanovsk city on Volga.

The Indian Air Force is expected to order at least 35 and Russian Air Force as many as 100 medium lift transport aircraft.

In its basic configuration the new transport aircraft will have a payload capacity of 18.