6 Indian MiG 29 jets upgraded in Russia

[mikhail]

Kuala Lumpur: Six of the 69 MiG-29 fighter planes of the Indian Air Force have been upgraded in Russia and the remaining jets will be upgraded in India, a Russian official has said.

The official from the Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG made the comments at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2013 in Malaysia on Saturday, the closing day of the exhibition.
The official said the modernisation is carried out in two stages. At the first stage, six planes were flown to Russia, accompanied by an Indian project team, which will then teach specialists in India, Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported.

Three of the six planes have already gone back home. The other three are being upgraded at Nizhny Novgorod's Sokol, which is part of MiG. They will be handed over to India before the end of the year, the official was quoted as saying.
At the second stage, the remaining 63 fighter planes will be upgraded in India by Indian specialists, the official said.

The modernisation programme was launched in 2009 in cooperation with India's HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited).

The IAF has awarded the MiG corporation a USD 900 million contract to upgrade all of its 69 operational MiG-29s.

These upgrades include a new avionics kit, with the N-109 radar being replaced by a Phazatron Zhuk-M radar. The aircraft is also being equipped to enhance beyond-visual-range combat ability and for air-to-air refuelling to increase flying time.

The service life of the modernised aircraft has been extended to 40 years, Russian media reports had said.

In 2007, Russia gave HAL a license to manufacture 120 RD-33 series 3 turbojet engines for the upgrade.

PTI

6 Indian MiG 29 jets upgraded in Russia
well thats a good news for us,but i thought we only had 68 Mig-29 A/B/UB variants as one got crashed in the late 2011

 

[arya]

pls let me know after upgrade the plane will be > f16(pak) !! > chinsie planes .

 

[mikhail]

pls let me know after upgrade the plane will be > f16(pak) !! > chinsie planes .

yes buddy they surely can hold off their own against the might aircrafts like F-16 blk-52 of PAF and J-10 of PLAAF.the Mig-29UPG is the most advanced version of the basic Mig-29 in the world.the Russians did a terrific job to upgade those aircraft with all the state of the art weaponry and equipments.and remember one thing,at the end of the day Mig-29 is still one of the best fighter aircraft of the world and second to none in WVR combat and with this upgradation it's now in a league with the top 4th generation aircrafts that our neighboring countries have in their disposal.so don't you worry about the F-16s and beside PAF has got only 18 brand new blk-52 aircrafts in their disposal and the remaining 45 F-16s are being upgraded through MLU.

 

[Somreet Bhattacharya]

Any Gurus with specs of the Zhuk M2E radar? is it different from the ME version.??

 

[mikhail]

Zhuk M2E radar
The Zhuk (Beetle) family of X-band Pulse-Doppler radars provide aircraft with two modes of operation, air to air and air to surface. The air to air mode of the Zhuk is capable of detecting targets and measuring their coordinates, range and speed.The radar has a look-down/shoot-down capability for air targets against a cluttered or water background and a variety of search modes are available. Individual targets can be tracked or multiple targets can be tracked and engaged at once while searching for new targets in track-while-scan mode.The Zhuk radar can identify detected targets by class and prioritise multiple targets for engagement. A variety of close combat scanning modes are featured including vertical scan, HUD view, boresight and slewable are available as well as locking onto a visually acquired target.The Zhuk radar also offers the ability to track and engage helicopters even when they are hovering.The Zhuk is compatible with a variety of air to air weapons including the radar guided R-77 and R-27 missiles to which it can provide targeting, target brightening and radio adjustment.The radar is compatible with optically guided missiles like the R-73 and can also provide fire control for aircraft cannon.


N010 Juk-AE at 2009 MAKS Airshow

In the air to surface mode the N010 radar offers a mapping capability using either Synthetic aperture radar (SAR), real beam or doppler beam narrowing modes with a resolution of up to 3x3m with zooming and image freezing functions.The radar can detect and track with measurement of range and speed both moving and static ground and naval targets. The Zhuk radar can support low altitude terrain following flying and can also detect dangerous weather patterns during flight. The radar is compatible with a variety of air to surface weaponry including Kh-29 air to surface missiles as well as Kh-31 anti-radiation missiles.
The Zhuk radar is modular in design with older variants of the radar such as the Zhuk-M and Zhuk-MS capable of being upgraded to the latest Zhuk-A standard.
-courtesy Wikipedia.
Zhuk radar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Besides its Zhuk-AE AESA radar, Russia's Phazotron-NIIR company is showing another new product at Aero India 2009 – the Zhuk M1E radar, with a mechanical slot array. As deputy director Yuri Guskov explained to Ares, the radar displayed in Bangalore is a production item and will be installed on one of India's carrier-based MiG-29Ks.
Phazotron is already working on the next modification of its slot array radars, the Zhuk M2E. This version will have a faster processor, allowing it to classify targets by type (for instance, fighters, bombers and helicopters) and to break-out formation targets flying at 20-30 meters apart. The radar can also be programmed to identify aircraft by type – in the case of a new type, it can record its reflected signal and later use it for identification.

The Zhuk M2E should start flight testing this year. The modernized radar will equip 62 Indian Air Force MiG-29s that MiG is modifying to the MiG-29UPG configuration under contract to the IAF. MiG design bureau chief designer Vladimir Barkovsky said here that the first six aircraft have already been shipped to Russia. The Indian Air Force is expected to receive its first MiG-29UPG in 2010.

Sharper Eyes For India's MiGs

beside this the Mig-29UPG will also feature the new Thales helmet mounted sight Topsight I.

Introduction

In March 2008 Russia's RAC-MiG signed a $964 million contract with the Indian Defense Ministry to modernize 62 MiG-29 fighters (54 fighters and 8 trainers). The project was expected to be completed by 2013, but is now expected to be completed by 2016.

Scope of the Upgrade

Life Extension

The upgrade will allow the IAF to extend the life of the MiG-29 from the present 25 years (and 2,500 hours) to 40 years (3,500 hours).
Improved Engine

The MiG-29UPG is powered by 2 Klimov RD-33 series 3 turbofan engines. Russia in 2007 licensed HAL to manufacture 120 copies of the engine for the upgrade program.
Improved Avionics

The avionics and weapon suites of the MiG-29 UPG will have a high degree of commonality with the MiG-29K/KUB fighters of the Indian Navy.

The air-defense optimized NO-19 radar has been replaced with the multifunction advanced slotted-array Phazatron Zhuk-M2E radar from Phazotron-NIIR Corporation.

The aircraft will feature the improved OLS-UEM IRST sensor.

NIPP is also equipping the aircraft with laser, thermal-imaging and television capabilities.

The Zhuk-M radar introduces advanced air to surface functions like mapping, moving target location and terrain following.

The avionics suite includes full-color multifunction liquid-crystal displays, helmet-mounted target designator from Thales, a Sagem inertial/satellite navigation system, an Indian EW system and an Israeli ECM station.
Improved Combat Capabilities

The modernization will improve the aircraft's air-to-ground attack capability and give pilots better BVR capability.

The aircraft's weapon suite will comprise Vympel RVV-AE (R-77) air-to-air active radar homing missiles and air-to-surface precision-guided munitions, such as Kh-29T general-purpose TV-homing missiles, Kh-31A antiship active radar-homing missiles, Kh-31P antiradiation missiles, KAB-500Kr TV-homing smart bombs, etc.

The aircraft will be fitted with an aerial refueling probe allowing for extended range and airborne timeline.

Upgrade Timeline

Six aircraft were to be upgraded by RAC-MiG in Russia and the remaining at IAF's 11 Base Repair Depot (BRD) in Nasik using kits supplied by RAC-MiG.

According to the original timeline, the first upgraded MiG-29 was scheduled to fly into India in March 2010. Fourteen aircraft were scheduled to roll out of 11BRD between April 2010 and March 2011. The upgrade program was to be completed by 2013.

However MIG officials told The Hindu in end July 2009 that there would be a delay of at least eight months in the arrival of the first upgraded aircraft.

The Russians held the IAF responsible for the delay saying it had not finalized the 'buyer furnished equipment.'

IAF was to provide RAC MiG the list of equipment and their actual physical dimensions that they want fitted on the upgraded MiG-29's. Many of these items are to be sourced or integrated by Indian companies.

As of August 1, 2011, none of the six MiG-29UPG had been delivered.

In October 2012, Russian's Duma's Defense Committee told journalist that RAC MiG had overhauled and upgraded six MiG-29 fighters. [via Rusaviation.com]

Upgrade Progress

RAC MiG announced on December 10, 2012 that it had delivered the first three MiG-29UPG aircraft to India on board an [Antonov] An-124 heavy-lift transport plane.

A further batch of three MiG-29s are being modernized in Russia, with the remaining 63 examples to be refitted by HAL in India.

MiG corporation carried out the first test fight of a MiG-29UPG on February 4, 2010.

"The flight lasted for an hour and was flawless," MiG said in a statement.

Deployment

The first lot of the 62 upgraded Russian-built aircraft will be deployed at Adampur air base in the border state of Punjab, a Defence Ministry official said in October 2009.

https://sites.google.com/site/idpsentinel/air-force-projects/fighters/mig-29-upgrade-mig-29upg

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Indian MIG-29UPG..

 

[Kunal Biswas]

 

[Mariner HK]

 

[Mariner HK]

range increased as well? Mig 29 is a light weight fighter jet with less range.. Wat about new Mig 29

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Extra fuel tank in that hump will increase its range..

 

[mikhail]

some photos of the upgraded Mig-29 UPG versions of the IAF:-

 

[Mariner HK]

some photos of the upgraded Mig-29 UPG versions of the IAF:-

Its worth a upgrade... Great far more better than Mig -29 ... Super

 

[Mariner HK]

Its more like MMRCA than Light fighter jet. Even previous Mig-29 is better than any American Light fighter..With these new updates i guess it can chalenge F18 and beyound

 

[vram]

Hmmm ... Like how the upgrades have improved the final punch of this aircraft... BUT oh man that hump is UGLY .. MIG 29 was on of the most classically beautiful aircraft out there. The lines where symetrical and pleasing to the eyes...Oh man now she looks pregnant ...