Key Points and Summary: The MiG-29K, Russia’s carrier-based fighter, has seen an unusual evolution. Initially losing out to the Su-33, the jet found new life when India sought an advanced naval fighter for its refurbished carrier.
-Despite structural improvements, a more powerful engine, and modern avionics, the MiG-29K now faces an uncertain future.
Naval variant of the second generation MiG-29, with the NATO codename ‘Fulcrum-D’. Reported to be operated by the 100th Independent Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment (OKIAP) based at Severomorsk. On static display at the Aviation cluster of the ARMY 2017 event. Kubinka Airbase, Moscow Oblast, Russia.
-Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, remains out of service with no clear timeline for return, leaving its naval fighters effectively grounded.
-While India continues to operate the MiG-29K, the jet’s long-term role in Russia’s naval aviation remains in doubt. Could this aircraft soon be without a mission?
The MiG-29K: Russia’s Aircraft Carrier Fighter Without a Carrier?
In the early 1980s, it was evident that the Soviet Navy (VMF)would need a top-flight, high-performance carrier-capable fighter jet. The VMF required this type of combat aircraft for use aboard what would become the first and only carrier in the fleet capable of operating STOBAR fighters, the Admiral Kuznetsov.
The building of the vessel’s sister ship, the Varyag, was not finished, and the carrier remained in the shipyards at Nikolayev, Ukraine when the Soviet Union collapsed. She stayed there for almost two decades before being sold to the PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy), still only in partially completed condition.
Three fighter prototypes were developed under a set of requirements passed to the aircraft design bureaus for potential operation on an aircraft carrier. These were the Sukhoi Su-27K (T-10K), the Yakovlev Yak-141, and the Mikoyan MiG-29K-9.31.
Of the three, only the MiG-29 used the framework of its land-based version with a structural load distribution and overall planform that could easily be adapted to a carrier design. According to former Mikoyan design engineers, the MiG-29K (the “K” meaning korabelniy or “ship-based”) was developed in parallel with another advanced but land-based variant, the MiG-29M-9.15.
The two variants of the MiG-29 shared many common design traits as “what was discovered to be an improvement beneficial to one of the two was almost always adopted to the other,” said one of the former designers familiar with that program effort. The most well-known of these was the elimination of the louvered air intakes in the leading edge extensions of the wing and the doors that would close and seal off the main air inlet until the MiG-29 was airborne.
The biggest difference between the two was the MiG-29K having a wing-fold incorporated into the design to permit use aboard the carrier.
Added Range and Flight Controls
Eliminating the louvered doors and the subsequent re-design of the center wingbox section created more space for internal fuel and avionics. The new aluminum-lithium-magnesium alloy used in the wing box was also lighter and stronger structurally. The construction of this part of the aircraft used an electron-beam welding chamber developed at the Znamya Truda Aircraft Plant No. 30 in central Moscow near the famous Dinamo football stadium.
The MiG-29K also improved the pilot’s over-the-nose visibility and was eventually equipped with a more advanced Phazotron Zhuk N010 radar set and an enhanced thrust Isotov RD-33K engine. The engine design was optimized for the higher thrust requirements of take-offs from the ski ramp-style bow of the flight deck on the Russian carrier. When the aircraft entered series production, there were also plans for a fiber-optic-driven fly-by-wire flight control system.
Unfortunately for the Mikoyan team the contract to supply a carrier fighter design went to Sukhoi for the Su-27K. Re-named the Su-33 in its series-production version, this aircraft won out as it had a greater operational range, a radar with a larger antenna array, better air-o-air detection performance, and the ability to carry more weaponry.
Second Life for MiG-29K
Mikoyan continued work on the MiG-29K into the 1990s, hoping to make a future sale to an export customer, most specifically India. In the early 2000s, when India purchased the Gorshkov carrier from Russia, New Delhi also sought to acquire an advanced version of the carrier-capable fighter.
The result some 15 years later was the MiG-29K-9.41 (MiG-29KUB-9.47 in the two-seat version). The aircraft was a next-generation improvement over the 1980s carrier model and had a completely re-designed structure that utilized far more composite materials than the older 9.31 design.
Admiral Kuznetsov Russian Navy. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Other systems had enjoyed an upgrade as well. A higher-thrust RD-33MK “Sea Wasp” engine was now equipped with FADEC, was smokeless, used blades with advanced materials for increased cooling, and an MTBO of 4000 hours. The radar on board was now an AESA, the Zhuk-MAE.
In 2012, the Russian Navy realized that the Su-33s in the fleet would be cost-prohibitive to modernize, so 20 MiG-29KR and four MiG-29KUBR models were ordered for the Kuznetsov and were all delivered by 2016.
With the status of the carrier’s repair still uncertain and still no completion date, it is unclear what will be done with these aircraft should the ship be permanently withdrawn from service.
Admiral Kuznetsov Aircraft Carrier. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
