Mig 29K pour l'aéronavale indienne

New Delhi and Moscow are moving forward on the procurement of a new aircraft carrier and additional carrier-based fighters following the visit to India of a top-level Russian delegation. However, the delegation could not lock in agreement on other key defense projects.

Russian-supported Indian navy programs were boosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi this month, but pivotal air force projects did not move ahead as some had anticipated. There was no final deal on Indian participation in Russia’s fifth-generation fighter program nor visible progress on the long-running proposal to codevelop a military airlifter.

Agreement was reached, though, on India’s buy of 29 more MiG-29K carrier-borne fighters, as was the price for modernization of the ship on which the type will eventually be based.

While Russian officials would not confirm the revised cost for the modernization of INS Vikramaditya (formerly the Admiral Gorshkov), Indian press reports put the cost at $2.34 billion.

Moscow and New Delhi initially struck a deal on the conversion of the Kiev-class cruiser in 2004, when work on the ship at the Severodvinsk-based Sevmash shipyard was priced at $800 million. The Gorshkov was moved from the wet dock to the outfitting quay in 2008.

Its deck was extended and a ski-jump added to enable operation of the MiG-29K aircraft. According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov, under the revised contract the Vikramaditya will be delivered at the end of 2012.

India’s navy now has 45 MiG-29Ks on order. The first batch of 12 MiG-29K single-seat and four MiG-29KUB two-seat aircraft was ordered in 2004 at a reputed cost of $650 million. MiG CEO Mikhail Pogosyan was quoted by Russian news agency RIA Novosti as saying the additional order is worth $1.5 billion. The first of these are to be delivered in 2012.

The original carrier-borne version of the MiG-29 Fulcrum, known as Article 9-31, was developed in 1988. The variant being delivered to India is an improved standard, the 9-41. This has an upgraded airframe with increased use of composites, a digital fly-by-wire system, inflight refueling and new avionics, including a glass cockpit and the Phazotron Zhuk-ME slot array radar.

Work has been undertaken to reduce the radar cross section of the aircraft, possibly including the use of radar-absorbent material on parts of the radars. The aircraft can also carry an increased weapons load, such as export versions of the R-73 (AA-11 Archer) and the R-77 (AA-12 Adder) air-to-air weapons as well as the Kh-35 (AS-20 Kayak) and the Kh-31A (AS-17 Krypton) anti-ship missiles. Flight tests have been carried out with the aircraft carrying two Kh-35s.

Flight trials of MiG-29K began in 2007 and were completed last year, culminating with takeoff and landing trials using Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetzov. The first six MiG-29Ks were delivered to India in 2009 and introduced into service by the navy last month (AW&ST Mar. 1, p. 34). Pogosyan says the rest of the first batch will be delivered this year.

Finalizing New Delhi’s involvement in Russia’s fifth-generation fighter development will likely take several months longer. India’s aim is to base the aircraft on Sukhoi’s T-50 development, including a two-seat variant of the aircraft.

Under the Russia-Indian intergovernmental agreement signed in 2007, development should be split 50:50 between Russia’s Sukhoi and India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL). Despite discussion during the negotiations of Indian involvement in development of the fifth-generation fighter, Sukhoi and HAL did not conclude an agreement.

Little progress appears to have been made on the Multirole Transport Aircraft (MTA) during Putin’s visit. The transport aircraft division of Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. and HAL were expected to officially establish a joint venture to run the program during Putin’s visit.

The aircraft, with a takeoff weight of 55 tons, payload capacity of 18.5 tons and a range of 2,500 km. (1,553 mi.), is intended to replace the Russian air force’s aging fleet of Antonov An-12s by 2016. According to an inter-governmental agreement, the Russian air force promised to buy up to 100 MTAs, while the Indian backlog is 45 aircraft. The Russian government is underwriting the project with 2 billion rubles ($68.4 million).

The two countries did strike a deal allowing India access to the high-precision signal of Russia’s Glonass satellite navigation system. Ivanov says that while Russia allows many countries to use Glonass for commercial needs, India is the first that will use it for defense purposes.