RuAviation

On 10 July 2024, German Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon fighters were put into the air to visually identify and escort two MiG-29K/KUB ship-based fighters over the Baltic Sea.

The MiG-29KUB (product 9-47) is a two-seat, deck-mounted, 4+ generation combat trainer multirole fighter in service with the Russian Navy’s naval aviation force. “There are no more than four units of these extremely rare machines in service today,” Evgeny Damantsev reports in the Russian Arms TG channel.

During the flight over the Baltic, the fighters were without mass-dimensional mock-ups of air-to-air missile weapons, which may indicate both “running-in” of the updated weapon control system software and training of pilots in performing tasks typical for navigator-operators. To increase the range, the aircraft were equipped with central suspended fuel tanks with a capacity of 2,150 litres.

To ensure integration of missile and bomb weapons, including the Kh-35U, Kh-59MK2 and Kh-38MTE/MLE/MAE multirole missiles, as well as the R-77-1 air-to-air missile, the MiG-29K/KUB’s airborne electronic equipment is built on the open architecture principle based on the MIL-STD-1553B standard. “The MIL-STD-1553B standard assumes an open architecture of the MiG-29KUB’s avionics and weapon control system elements, providing the possibility of updating the element base with a corresponding source code update,” the statement said.

The fighter is equipped with a more advanced coherent-pulse on-board radar station Zhuk-ME variant FGM-129, operating in the centimetre wave range. The antenna is a slit-grid based moving blade with an inbuilt compensation channel. The modernisation of this station carried out in 2008-2011 significantly improved its tactical and technical characteristics and expanded its combat capabilities. The range of detection of targets with an effective reflective surface (EDS) of three square metres is about 110 km, and targets with an EDS of 0.1 square metres – about 40 km. The system also implements a terrain mapping mode with a resolution of 5×5 or 3×3 square metres.

Compared to the previous generation of radars, the Zhuk-ME has a wider range of azimuth viewing angles, lower weight and higher reliability. The station provides tracking of up to 10 air targets and simultaneous firing of missiles at four of them. MiG-29K/KUB are equipped with modern multi-channel optical-location station and target designation system for passive homing heads of anti-radar missiles. It is possible to install on the aircraft containers with infrared and laser sighting equipment for illumination of ground targets.

The MiG-29KUB has a maximum speed of 2100 km/h and a practical ceiling of 17500 metres. The aircraft are fitted with new RD-33 series 3M turbojet twin-circuit engines with afterburner with a total afterburner thrust of 17400 kgf. The range of the fighters with three suspended fuel tanks at an echelon of 10,000 metres can reach 1,350 kilometres, and 750 kilometres without fuel tanks.

In the early 2010s, production of the aircraft was financed by orders for 42 MiG-29Ks of the Indian Navy. Later, MiG RSC built 22 aircraft for one regiment of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. The Russian Navy command initially favoured the Su-33 deck aircraft, but the fact that the cost of starting production of the MiG-29K was financed by Indian orders led to the purchase of the lighter aircraft.