MiG Corporation has offered India its new MiG-35 fighter. I bring to your attention an excerpt from an article by Financial Express on this topic.
The MiG-35 fighter is a new aviation complex with all modern technologies allowing to carry it to the fifth generation fighter. It shows better combat effectiveness than its competitors. It has a greater radius of action and effectiveness. It installed new Russian avionics, software, a cabin with multi-function screens.
In addition, an AFAR radar is installed on it. It has an increased range of detection, tracking, recognition and capture of air, ground and surface targets, day and night, at a distance of 190 km.
The fighter is armed with new types of weapons that make it possible to carry out combat missions with maximum efficiency. The MiG-35 fire control system is capable of integrating any Russian and foreign weapons manufactured in India. MiG Corporation has developed a completely new navigation and target acquisition system, a communications system.
When developing the MiG-35 fighter, the aerodynamic configuration of the MiG-29 was used. Comparative studies of modern aircraft systems have shown that the MiG-29 aerodynamic lineup is much better than many competing platforms in terms of maneuverability and low visibility. In order to achieve the lowest possible visibility, design changes were made and a new Russian radar absorbing coating was used.
Russia, like no other state, is ready to transfer production technologies together with fighters to its time-tested partner. The MiG-21 fighter began to be produced in India under license in the 1960s. Since then, many other Soviet and Russian military products have been manufactured in India under license.
MiG-35 is a new export variant that combines the modern systems of the MiG-29M2 with an AESA radar. The fighter plane has the thrust vectoring of the MiG-29OVT as an additional option. Improved avionics and weapon systems, notably the new AESA radar and the uniquely designed optical locator system (OLS), make the aircraft less dependent on ground-controlled interception (GCI) systems and enables the MiG-35 to conduct independent multirole missions.
MiG-35 is fitted with active electronically scanned array radar. The Zhuk-MA’s antenna consists of 160 modules, each with four receive-and-transmit modules. It is believed to offer a 160km (85nm) air target detection radius and 300km for surface ships.
The MiG-35 is powered by two RD-33MKBs that can be fitted with KliVT swivel-nozzles and a thrust vectoring control (TVC) system. The MiG-35’s combination of TVC and advanced missile-warning sensors gives it the edge during combat.
RD-33 engines generate 7% more power compared to the baseline model due to the modern materials that go into the manufacturing of the cooled blades. The engines provide a higher-than-average thrust of 9,000kgf. RD-33 engines are smokeless and include systems that reduce infrared and optical visibility. The engines may be fitted with vectored-thrust nozzles, which would result in an improvement in combat efficiency.
The MiG-35 can climb at the rate of 330m/s. Its maximum speed is 2,400km/h. The normal and ferry range of the aircraft are 2,000km and 3,100km respectively. The service ceiling is 17,500m. The aircraft weighs around 11,000kg and its maximum take-off weight is 29,700kg.