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Andrey Fomin contracts and deliveries | project The first MiG-29SMT prototype (aircraft 917) built in late 1990s and offered for RusAF featured a wide array of precision guided weapons, new avionics, glass cockpit, mid-air refuelling system and a huge additional 2,000-litre dorsal fuel cell, at MAKS 2005 airshow MiGs in the Middle East The MiG-29 debuted in the Middle East 20 years ago, in 1987, with a batch of such aircraft sold to Syria. According to western experts, about 150 aircraft of the type are in use in the region now. The major MiG-29 operators in the Middle East and North Africa are Algeria, Yemen, Iran and Syria. A number of MiG-29s in various versions have been delivered to Eritrea and Sudan over the past decade also. MiG Corp.’s experts estimate the near-future capacity of the Middle East and North African markets for aircraft in the MiG-29 class at 200–250 units. The number includes both deliveries of brand-new fighters and upgrade of those in use, with the growth of the number of MiG-29 operators in the area being a possibility. According to the Flight International magazine (21–27 Nov. 2006), the Syrian Air Force had operated 48 MiG-29 fighters, Iran 40, Algeria 33, Yemen 17, Sudan 12 and Eritrea five by early this year. The MiG-29s were exported to Syria and Iran by the Soviet Union between 1987 and 1990. The fleet of the Iranian MiG-29s was beefed up in the ‘90s with the aircraft that escaped in 1991 from Iraq that ordered its most up-to-date combat aircraft to the neighbouring country to save them from destruction at the hand of the United States and their allies in the course of Operation Desert Storm. Those MiG-29s remained in Iran, being incorporated into IRIAF later on. Algeria received its first fighters of the type in 1999-2000 from Ukraine and Belarus, with the two countries having delivered to Algeria before 2002 a total of 36 Soviet-built aircraft discarded from service by their own air forces. Yemen got its MiG-29s in the same fashion: four used fighters were exported by Moldova (all data of MiG-29 exports have been taken from the UN Register of Conventional Arms at http://disarmament2.un.org/un_register.nsf). Eritrea took delivery of its first MiG-29s in 1998–99 when six to 10 aircraft of the type arrived from Russia. However, many of them were lost soon during the war against Ethiopia. Sudan was next to join the club of MiG-29 users, having bought from MiG Corp. 12 MIG-29SE and MiG-29UB aircraft in 2003–04 under the contract signed in 2001. The willingness of the users in the region to have the combat capabilities of their MiG-29s enhanced (the former Soviet states sometimes delivered the fighters in a state that was not satisfactory enough) and expand their fleets of the fighters of the type has led to new contracts awarded to MiG corp. earlier in this decade. Under the contracts, the manufacturer upgrades the fighters to MiG-29SMT standard or replaces them with brand-new aircraft of the same type. Yemen became the launch customer for the MiG-29SMT in the region and in the world, having ordered upgrade of 20 fighters, including upgrade of four MiG-29UB two-seaters, in December 2002. At the first stage, Yemen got 14 baseline MiG-29s in the early 2000s, which soon afterwards were replaced with upgraded MiG-29SMTs. Delivery of updated twinseaters kicked off in 2004 and that of MiG-29SMT singleseaters in March 2005, having been completed by 2006. The next country to field upgraded Fulcrums was Eritrea receiving two MiG-29SMTs in 2005. 2006 saw the kick-off of the deal, clinched earlier in the year, for 28 MiG-29SMT singleseaters and six upgraded MiG-29UB twinseaters to Algeria. The first twinseaters went to Algeria late last year, followed by early single-seat MiG-29SMTs this year. As was announced during the Le Bourget air show in June, early 2007 saw the signature of 22 take-off november 2007 www.take-off.ru
the first contract for MiG-29M/M2 fighters that are close enough to the MiG-29SMT in terms of avionics, weapons and combat capabilities, but are, actually, newly-built aircraft, with the airframe, powerplant and avionics fit being the same as those of the Generation 4++ MiG-35 fighter. In support of NATO’s East European members Since the East European MiG-29 users Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania decided to retain their Fulcrum fleets in service despite joining NATO in 1999–2004, the fighters have to be adapted to NATO/ICAO standards. The standards in question are met by the upgraded version dubbed MiG-29SD. MiG Corp. and a number of foreign companies have been upgrading the Slovak Air Force’s MiG-29s to SD standard since 2005. Upgrading MiG-29s to MiG-29SD standard is aimed at adapting their avionics for compatibility with other NATO air forces and improving the cockpit management system to enhance combat effectiveness. Once upgraded, the fighters will be fitted with advanced US- and UK-made communications, navigation and IFF gear. Modifications to the cockpit MiG-29SMT (aircraft 918) became a prototype for upgraded fighters for Yemeni Air Force, their deliveries started in 2005. Bottom photo shows aircraft’s demo flight at Dubai airshow in November 2005 management system include the advanced MFI-54 push-button colour multifunction liquid-crystal display (MFD) and PUS-29 systems control panel from the Russian Avionics company. MiG Corp. is the MiG-29SD programme integrator operating in close cooperation with suppliers of latest gear to fit the fighters – Rockwell Collins and BAE Systems as well as the LOT aircraft repair plant in Trencin (Slovakia) that handles the upgrade of the Slovak MiG-29s. Similar modernisation is offered to other NATO’s East European members operating MiG-29 fighters with specific improvements and advanced equipment may vary depending on the customer’s requirements. Low-cost option Cash-strapped countries in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia needing inexpensive contracts and deliveries | project multirole fighters are offered the MiG-29SM low-cost upgrade package. At minimum cost, the customer can have its fighters furnished with the improved avionics and weapons suites, the latter beefed up with sophisticated air-to-air missiles and precision-guided air-to-ground weapons. In addition, the aircraft can be fitted with the mid-air refuelling system, if the customer wishes so. Similar solutions have been applied to the MiG-29BM fighters in the Belarusian Air Force’s inventory since 2004. MiG-29SM improvements boil down to furnishing the N019E (N019ME) fire control radar with the ARLK additional radar channel and MVK-4 computer, modernising the infrared search-and-track (IRST) system by introducing an up-to-date data display system with the MFI-54 MFD and installing a control system to manage additional weapons. The flight navigation www.take-off.ru take-off november 2007 23 Andrey Fomin Piotr Butowski
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