Russia ready to export advanced MiG-35 fighter to India

Russia is ready to supply India with sophisticated Mikoyan MiG-35 multi-role fighters, should India be interested in the type, Vladimir Drozhzhov, Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC), has told TASS.

“If India takes interest [in the MiG-35], Russia is ready to deliver it, all the more so that MiG fighter jets are well known to Indian pilots and India has the adequate infrastructure to operate them, which is not the fact as far as the French-made Rafale fighters are concerned,” Drozhzhov said.

The testing of the MiG-35 will be complete in the coming years, MiG Corporation Director General Ilya Tarasenko said at the Aero India 2017 air show. “They [the trials] have been underway smoothly. We shall complete them in the coming years,” he replied. MiG Corp. is prepared to offer its MiG-35 in the bidding on the Indian contract, Tarasenko added. “Our objective is to have the MiG-35 in the Indian Air Force’s [IAF] inventory. Therefore, we shall bid in any tender in India,” he said.

The MiG-35 is an advanced Russian-built fourth-generation plus multi-role fighter derived from the MiG-29K/KUB and MiG-29M/M2 combat aircraft. It features improved flight characteristics, cutting-edge avionics and a formidable weapons suite comprising a wide array of air-to-air and air-to-surface guided missiles and smart bombs.