Photo: Russian APT / Max Bryansky
India has problems with India’s Russian-built Mikoyan MiG-29K/KUB aircraft, the IHS Jane’s 360 information portal reported.
Flight training with the aircrafts is conducted at the test base at Goa. Indian specialists, who have visited the base, said that the MiG-29Ks are being delivered to India in a ‘substandard configuration’.
Indian and Russian experts see the reason of this problem in the combined embargoes imposed by Ukraine, the EU and the USA. The EU and the USA imposed sanctions against Russia that prohibit the export of Western military components to Moscow, while the Ukrainian government also banned the export of any military-use items to Russia.
However, India has found a ‘workaround’, imported these items directly in the country, and is integrating them onto the aircrafts on-site at the Goa base. According to one of the Indian specialists, the aircrafts are “literally being upgraded and brought up to specification while on the flightline.”
There is a difference between the MiG-29K for India and the MiG-29KR aircraft being built for the Russian Navy. The Indian-produced and foreign-made components are deleted in the configuration of the latter aircraft and replaced by Russian-made systems.
More about MiGs in our article – Russia Defense Report: The MiGs Return
India betrayed Russia. These planes will never fly.