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Russia Set To Fly The Upcoming MIG-35 Fulcrum-F
Russian Aerospace Forces might replace the 350 MIG-29s in their fleet with the upcoming MIG-35 Fulcrum-F, MIG’s new Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft.
Russia is all set to fly its new aircraft, the MIG-35 Fulcrum-F. General Director of Mikoyan Gurevich (MiG) at the Paris Air Show confirmed that, development of the new aircraft is almost complete, with testing scheduled to be completed latest by the end of 2017 or early in 2018.
The MIG-35 is the next-generation fighter jet that is set to replace the MIG-29 in the Russian Aerospace forces, and the very same was recently confirmed in an interview with the commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Colonel General Viktor Bondarev.
He had, in an interview with IHS Jane's, mentioned that there is a plan to replace all the MIG-29s in the fleet with the new MIG-35. There are around 350 MIG-29s in the fleet currently, and hence, the MIG-35 seems to have a large order at hand already, even before final testing has been completed.
The MIG-35 seems to have imbibed the traits of one of its ancestors, the MIG-21 - ability to survive in rough conditions. MIG Spokeswoman Anastasia Kravchenko was quoted as saying, "The MIG-35 Fulcrum-F can take off from a very short lane, take-off and land on unprepared airfields and can be stored without a hangar for a period of a few months."
The MIG-35 has around 12 percent more power than previous Russian models, and also has stealth features integrated into it since it is a 4++ Generation Fighter Aircraft. The MIG-35 will become part of the Russian Aerospace Forces' fleet by 2018, while international customers will have to wait till 2020.
Drivespark Thinks!
Around 78 MIG-29s are in service with the Indian Air Force and around 45 have been ordered by the Indian Navy. Although both are designed for significantly different operating scenarios, the basic aircraft design is almost the same. The MIG-29 was designed in the 1980s, and still is going strong.
Like the Russian Forces, would the Indian forces too see the need to upgrade from the current MIG-29s and purchase the new MIG-35? Or would the recent venture between Tata Advanced Systems and Lockheed Martin to Manufacture Bloc-70 F-16s in India draw their attention? Only time will tell.
Picture credit: Wiki Commons