Russia’s MiG-35 Now Looks Like a Failure
The Mikoyan name has long been synonymous with the image conjured when one speaks of Russian fighter aircraft. This reputation is due mainly to the fact that most Russian-made fighter aircraft that United States fighter models have encountered in combat have been from the famous Mikoyan Design Team.
One of the most well-known of these was the shootdown of two Libyan MiG-23s over the Gulf of Sidra by two US Navy F-14s in January 1989.
The most recent series-produced model from Mikoyan Design Bureau (OKB) was the MiG-29, which first saw service with the Soviet Air Force (VVS) in 1983. This timeframe puts the service life of the aircraft more than four decades in length. Like almost any fighter aircraft design, it has progressed through numerous evolutionary upgrades and modifications to keep pace with modern combat conditions.
Soviet war planners originally commissioned the development of the MiG-29 in parallel with the Su-27. Both aircraft were then produced in series to mirror the same type of “hi-lo” or heavy airframes, complementing a smaller, medium-weight fighter mix as the US had developed in the 1970s with the F-15 and F-16.
Post-Cold War Modernization of the MiG-29
A top-to-bottom change to the MiG-29s wingbox section and the substitution of new materials was planned in the 1990s for the “MiG-29M.” However, the economic collapse of the post-Soviet economy removed the possibility of this version moving forward beyond the prototype development and flight test validation phase.
These significant changes envisioned for the aircraft essentially stalled and were not acted upon until the calendar clicked over into the early 2000s. This was when the Russian aerospace sector began to come out of a near collapse and developed innovations again.
More importantly, the export market that Mikoyan had relied upon for years as one of the OKB’s only sources of income started to become more active with some small sales that gave the OKB some breathing room. Then, in the second half of the 2000s, India announced a massive fighter tender for 126 new aircraft plus 63 options—a program known as the Medium-MultiRole Combat Aircraft (M-MRCA),
What The MiG-35 Fighter Really Is
The MiG-35 is the culmination of many airframe changes planned for the MiG-29M. Then, some additional modifications and substitutions include the use of lighter-weight materials. This reboot of the MiG-29M also includes an uprated engine, an Active Electronically Scanning Array (AESA) radar, and an entirely new avionics suite.
Along with the new onboard systems, a name change was made to re-label the aircraft to make it look like a new-generation weapons platform.
“There is in India, as there is in other Asian and Middle East nations, what we call the ‘Rolex mentality.’ This basically means that a customer will think a higher number automatically means a more advanced and better-performing product,” explained a former Mikoyan design engineer who spoke to 19FortyFive.
“India already has MiG-29s, having been one of the first export customers for the aircraft and it is also one of the very oldest versions of the fighter. Even though the Indian MiGs have been upgraded over the years, there was still the concern by the people marketing the aircraft that they needed to create the impression that ‘this might look like your father’s MiG-29 but it is not.”
Until recently, there did not seem to be any future for the MiG-35. The Su-30SM has largely taken over the old MIG-29 missions it used to carry out. However, Russia has lost so many combat aircraft in the Ukraine war that the military leadership is now worried that if the conflict widens to include air forces from NATO nations, Moscow would have an inadequate supply of fighter aircraft.
Surging production lines for the Su-35 and Su-30SM is not a practical solution, so the MiG manufacturing facilities, some of which have been long dormant, will now be re-activated. This will have the MiG-35 in large-scale production, but there are those who say this is easier said than done.
MiG-35. Image Credit: RAC MiG.
“Many of the supply chains for production of these aircraft have atrophied and spinning them back up may turn out to be a difficult proposition at best,” said the same former Mikoyan engineer.
About the Author:
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.
