Egyptian Mig-29’s to carry IRST, EW System

The Mikoyan MiG-29 (NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) fighter jets to be exported to Egypt will be fitted out with advanced infrared search-and-track (IRST) stations and electronic warfare (EW) pods, according to the Izvestia daily.

According to representatives of the defense contractors taking part in executing the contract, Egypt’s MiG-29s will feature the latest OLS-UE IRST capable of not only detecting enemy aircraft by their infrared signature, but also acquiring surface threats, getting their coordinates and showing the imagery on a display in the cockpit.

In addition to the IRST, the MiG-29s ordered by Egypt will be equipped with the PPK targeting pod comprising thermal imager/TV systems and laser rangefinders allowing the employment of not only precision-guided munitions (PGM), e.g. bombs and missiles carrying TV or laser homing heads, but also ‘dumb’ munitions with a circular error probable (CEP) of tens of centimeters.

The OLS-UE and PPK have been developed and manufactured by the same company – Precision Instrument Systems, a subsidiary of the Roscosmos State Corporation.

The Russian Aerospace Force’s (RusAF) fleet of MiG-29s is equipped with IRSTs too, but the latter are rather a means of dogfighting, a RusAF officer says. According to the source, the IRST designed for the Egyptian MiG-29s both feeds TV and IR imagery to a display in the cockpit and, if need be, ‘paints’ the target using the integral laser rangefinder that creates a laser spot invisible to the naked eye but quite visible to homing PGMs.

Another novelty to be supplied to Egypt is the MSP small-size electronic countermeasures (ECM) system from the Axel Berg Central Research Institute. The MSP spoofs the homing heads of guided missiles, e.g. the US-made AIM-130 AMRAAM and AIM-7 Sparrow and French-manufactured MICA-EM.

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