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Indian Navy MiG-29K Carrier-Based Multirole Fighter Order to be Fulfilled in 2016 - TASS.
| 2015
Mikoyan MiG-29K of the Indian Navy in flight over Indian islands. Picture: Indian Navy |
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India
ordered a total of 45 MiG-29K/KUB deck-based fighters under two contracts
awarded to Russia. The first order for 16 aircraft was placed as part
of the Russian-Indian framework agreement on the Vikramaditya aircraft
carrier in 2004. The supplementary order for 29 fighters more was landed
by MiG Corp. in 2010. Thus, India became the launch customer for the MiG-29K
ahead of the Russian Navy. The first 16 planes delivered to the customer fly from the Vikramaditya now, while the remaining MiG-29Ks are slated for basing onboard India’s indigenous aircraft carrier, the Vikrant, which service entry is planned for 2018. As for the MiG-29s operated by the Indian Air Force, Russia has upgraded the first six of them, and the next phase of the upgrade began at a local Indian facility and has been on schedule so far. At the same time, India is pursuing several other upgrade programs, the Mirage and Jaguar ones in particular. They are very important to the Indian Air Force, because the service entry of advanced fighting hardware has been delayed, while the in-service MiG-21s (Fishbed) and MiG-27s (Flogger) are subject for decommissioning in the near future. © Copyright 2015 TASS. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
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