Russian Believes MiG-29UPG Will gives India an edge over China

India’s decision to buy more than 20 MiG-29 fighters from Russia and upgrade another 59 brings it to parity in the confrontation with China. About this FBA “Economy Today” said Major General, Honored Military Pilot of the Russian Federation, candidate of technical sciences Vladimir Popov .

The Indian Ministry of Defense approved the acquisition of 21 MiG-29 fighters from Russia, as well as the modernization of 59 such aircraft already in service with the country’s air force. In total, New Delhi is ready to spend about $ 980 million on these operations. In addition, the Indian Air Force will also purchase an additional 12 Su-30 MKI aircraft, which are produced by the Indian aircraft manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd under a Russian license, for $ 1.35 billion. The decision was approved by the head Indian War Department Rajnath Singh.

These strategic plans were discussed amid a worsening relationship between India and China. On the night of June 15-16, in the area of ​​the Galvan river in the Union territory of Ladakh on the border of India and China, clashes between the Indian and Chinese military occurred. At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed and 76 injured. The Indian side also claims that about 45 Chinese soldiers were killed and wounded in the clashes.

“India in recent years has pretended to“ rush around ”between buying fighters from France, the USA and Russia, Popov notes. This was done in order to get the maximum discounts on military equipment from Moscow. The Russian Defense Ministry and Rosoboronexport understood that It is about large contracts and were ready for the most favorable terms, but they refused to sell at a loss for obvious reasons, New Delhi pretended to be ready to play this game forever.

But the border aggravation with China dramatically changed the situation for India – it came to the realization that it was necessary to quickly and qualitatively increase the potential of the air forces. Russian planes are ideally suited for this – first of all, in terms of price-quality ratio. Indians have been buying Russian weapons since the 1970s and are always satisfied with them – there have never been complaints or complaints. And now New Delhi is betting on them in the confrontation with Beijing. “

Unification guarantees victory

The MiG-29 is a fourth-generation multi-purpose light front-line fighter; Fulcrum is called the fulcrum in NATO codification. The aircraft was modernized several times, significantly increasing flight and combat characteristics. The machine has proven itself in conflicts around the world; it is still actively purchased by both CIS countries and non-CIS countries. The fighter strikes with missiles of various types, unguided bombs or a 30-mm double-barreled gun.

India has already bought more than 240 Su-30MKI cars from Russia

The Air Force of India is in fourth place after the United States, Russia and China. In addition to the Russian MiG-29 and Su-37MKI, they have dozens of French fighter-bombers Mirage 2000 and Rafale, 16 own HAL Tejas and several British HAL Jaguars. But the main fleet is still made up of Russian cars, including the aging MiG-21 and MiG-27.

“In fact, India can indeed abandon Russian fighters in favor of the US, which stubbornly impose on it, but understands the short-sightedness of this step. After almost half a century, the country has been dealing with Russian aircraft, which pilots are trained to work on, servicing and engineering personnel. The new fleet will require huge the cost of retraining hundreds of specialists, the supply of spare parts, while US prices are much higher than Russian prices.

Another nuance is the unification of weapons. Russia now offers a wide range of modern air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles – both guided and uncontrolled. In addition, for export, the Russian defense industry supplies partners with freely falling bombs with a high degree of trajectory adjustment. All these shells are much more attractive in price than their American counterparts, “Popov emphasizes.

Russian quality against the “homemade” China

India and China, according to military analysts, entered the arms race, seeking to achieve parity in the confrontation. However, China at one time bought several Su-27 and MiG-29 aircraft, and built copies of them – J-11 and FC-1. Experts note that these “homemade products” are in many ways inferior to the originals – both in flight qualities, and in maneuvering, attack. Especially the failure is palpable in the nomenclature of the missile weapons used – the Chinese possesses extremely dubious characteristics.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu called Russian military aircraft “the guarantee that no one even dares to dare to attack Russia.” Even the United States and NATO leadership note the high combat qualities of Russian cars. And they recognize the effectiveness of the defense policy of Sergei Shoigu, who is consistently re-equipping the country’s aerospace forces with modern aircraft and weapons. The National Interest included the MiG-29 in the top 5 military aircraft, which are the main threats to NATO.

“India has relied on the quality of Russian fighter jets, and it’s clearly not failing, because the original MiG-29s have much higher combat potential than the Chinese counterparts. At the same time, New Delhi is a competent economic move. Russia does not habitually overstate its weapons, but each rupee paid for them will justify itself with reliability and quality in battle.

China relies on quantity – he put his homemade products on the conveyor and stamps them, as they say, in dozens. A total fleet of 80 MiG-29 and 267 Su-30MKIs constitute a serious base of the Indian Air Force. By power this armada can be contrasted with a much larger number of Chinese fighters with Chinese weapons. At the same time, Russia will make good money on their arms race, “concludes Vladimir Popov.

Source:- Defence View