Russia delivers four MiG-29K fighters to India
Russian aircraft maker MiG delivered in December a batch of four MiG-29K shipborne fighters to the Indian Navy under a contract concluded in 2010, the company said. With the delivery, MiG “has fulfilled all its obligations for 2012 stipulated in the 2010 contract with the Indian Defense Ministry,” the company said in a statement. In March 2010, Russia and India signed a $1.5-billion contract on the supply of 29 additional MiG-29K Fulcrum-D carrier-based fighter jets to New Delhi.
Last year Russia fulfilled its 2004 contract with the Indian Defense Ministry, supplying the country with 12 single-seat MiG-29Ks and four two-seat MiG-29KUBs.
The contracts for the jets also stipulate pilot training and aircraft maintenance, including the delivery of flight simulators and interactive ground and sea-based training systems.
The Indian Navy will base the MiG-29K squadron, dubbed the “Black Panthers” at an airfield in the state of Goa on India’s west coast until INS Vikramaditya, the Soviet-built carrier originally named the Admiral Gorshkov, joins the Navy in the fall of 2013.
The MiG-29K is a navalized variant of the MiG-29 land-based fighter, and has folding wings, an arrester tail-hook, strengthened airframe and multirole capability. It can be armed with a wide variety of air-to-air and air-to-surface weaponry.
