Additional MiG-29Ks for the Indian Navy

[+ghostrider883 526]

Indian Navy to acquire two more squadrons of MiG-29Ks

 

Sources said the Navy is planning to raise a total of three squadrons of MiG 29 K ship borne fighters. A follow on order to take the total number of fighters to around 50 is expected in the future.

 

However, the MiG 29 K fighters for the carrier have been manufactured on time and are set to arrive by next month. Naval sources said while the fighters are ready for a ferry flight to India, the actual induction may take time as the training modules for pilots in Russia have not yet been completed. “Weather permitting, the training will be completed on time and the fighters will be ferried to India by October-November,” a source said.

 

More punch for the Navy .

Pretty much throws out the Rafale to arm India's Indigenous Aircraft Carrier.

Edited September 21, 2008 by ghostrider883

[Chaser617 0]

The question is does this also rule out a navalized version of the HAL Tejas for the same role or were the Fulcrum-Ks always intended as a 'lead in' to that aircraft?

 

Which incidently is an aircraft I'd like to see in Wings Over series. Ever since I started coming to forums and you've posted Ghostrider I've gotten more and more interested in the IAF and the IN.

[+ghostrider883 526]

The question is does this also rule out a navalized version of the HAL Tejas for the same role or were the Fulcrum-Ks always intended as a 'lead in' to that aircraft?

 

Looking at the way things have been going on, we'd be lucky to see the HAL Tejas inducted in large numbers in the Indian AF. Naval Tejas is far off. The first two seater Tejas prototype is supposed to fly this month, followed by the Naval prototype next year. The Naval Tejas & MiG-29K or Rafale were supposed to the air defense wing of the new INS Vikrant i.e the name given to India's Indigenous aircraft carrier.

 

Apparently the F-404 engine that powers the Tejas is underpowered for the airframe. HF-24 suffered with the same problem and ended up being relegated to a ground attack fighter.

They are now thinking of replacing it with Eurofighter's Engine (ERJ-200?) or Super Hornet's F-414. That would mean changes in the airframe, which means all the hard work in getting the Tejas to what it is uptil now will go to waste. Teh LCA protypes have carried out R-73 firings, 800 Litre Drop tank tests and Litening Pod tests.

Hope & pray that the Tejas does not meet the same fate as the Arjun MBT, which is all but dead .

 

Which incidently is an aircraft I'd like to see in Wings Over series. Ever since I started coming to forums and you've posted Ghostrider I've gotten more and more interested in the IAF and the IN.

 

My pleasure. Am glad that my posts have been helpful

[JediMaster 451]

I'm not sure what's wrong with the Rafale...maybe it was the lack of the word "Mirage" in the name...but it sure has been a bust for Dassault.

 

However, seeing as it likely has little in common with the M2000, but the MiG-29K DOES have stuff in common with other Russian jets, from a logistics perspective I can see that the 29K would be favored every time.

[+ghostrider883 526]

NAVY TO ORDER MORE MIG-29K FIGHTERS

 

Monday, September 22, 2008

Unfazed by the delayed delivery (from 2008 to 2012) of the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya from Russia, the Indian Navy (IN) has decided to order a follow-on batch of 29 MiG-29Ks, all of which will be subjected to the same incremental block development plan as that for its initial 12 RAC MiG-built single-seat MiG-29Ks and four tandem-seat MiG-29KUB operational conversion trainers.

 

Under this approach, incremental performance enhancements will be introduced, much like that for the Indian Air Force’s Su-30MKIs, that will, by 2012, transform the MiG-29K/KUB from a medium multi-role combat aircraft into a dedicated, network-centric information warfare platform that will also possess force-multiplier capabilities such as airborne early warning & control as well as offensive electronic jamming. These capabilities are now being validated on board two preproduction prototypes—a MiG-29KUB-47 that had made its maiden flight (after a six-month delay) on January 22, 2007 at Russia’s Gromov Flight Research Institute at Zhukovsky on the outskirts of Moscow, and a MiG-29K-41 that joined the flight test program in June the same year. The last milestone that was attained on March 18 last year in the presence of the IN’s visiting Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Suresh Mehta, involved the maiden flight (originally slated for November 2006) of the first production standard MiG-29KUB (No113) at the Lukhovitsy-based flight test centre of RACMiG in the outskirts of Moscow. The MiG-29KUB, piloted by RAC-MiG’s senior test pilots Pavel Nikolaevich Vlasov and Aleksandr Petrovich Pelikh, made two traditional taxi runs and completed a 42-minute flight. By last June, this aircraft was made available for test-flights and operational conversion to a team of IN pilots led by Capt J Mahapatra. Series production deliveries to the IN will begin later this month, and will be completed by late 2009. The US$720 million contract for 12 MiG-29K-41s and four MiG-29KUBs, which was inked on January 20, 2004, also gives the IN the option to procure a second batch of 29 MiG-29K/KUBs which, once ordered, will be delivered between 2010 and 2013.

 

The maximum offensive payload of the MiG-29K will be 5,500kg (12,125lb). The aircraft’s airframe will have a service life of 4,000 hours or 40 years, while its wings have additional slats

that retract into its wing roots and provide increased lift while landing. To be serviced on an ‘on-condition’ basis that will reduce direct operating costs per flying hour by 40% (or 2.5 times lower than the MiG-29B-12 variant), the airframe will be required to undergo a scheduled maintenance every 300 flight hours and technical condition checks every 1,000 hours, or every

10 years. In all, the MiG-29K/KUBs will have only three major airframe checks during their lifetimes. The entire airframe will also be applied with radar absorbent coatings to reduce the radar cross-section by a factor of five.

 

For full airworthiness certification, RAC-MiG and GosNIIAS have to date built 28 test-rigs, including the on-board Karat-B29K, co developed by the Kursk-based Aviaavtomatika OKB and GosNIIAS, that combines the functions of built-in test equipment, systems monitoring and flight data recorder/cockpit voice recorder for collectively capturing flight data, generating systems failure warnings and recording the aircrew’s air-to-ground or air-to-air communications on a common medium.

 

While RAC-MiG’s Lukhovitsy-based facility is responsible for final assembly of the aircraft, the Federal Scientific Production Centre Ramenskoye Instrument Building Design Bureau (RPKB) and GosNIIAS are prime systems integrators for the MIL-STD-1553B digital databus-based PrNK-29K and PrNK-29KUB open-architecture navigation-and-attack avionics suites for the MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB. RPKB is also supplying the on-board IDK-42 health and usage monitoring system, ShKAl wide-angle monochrome HUD and 6-inch by 8-inch MFI- 10-7 active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCD). MNPK Avionika and the Elara JSC have co-developed the KSU-941 quadruplex digital fly-by-wire flight control system as well as the BARK full-authority digital electronic control system for the aircraft’s twin Klimov NPOdesigned RD-33-3 turbofans. Components of French origin on board include the Sagem Défense Sécurité-built SIGMA-95 GPS/ring-laser gyro-based inertial navigation system, and THALES-built TACAN radios (two), a UHF radio and radar altimeter. IN pilots will use THALES-built lightweight TopOwl-F helmet-mounted sights and will also be able to see a combined radar, thermal imaging and digital map picture in real time on the aircraft’s HUD and AMLCD displays. The HF and VHF radios are of Russian origin, while the radar warning receiver and TACAN navigation system will be the Tarang Mk3 built by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL). The active jamming pod, to be carried by the No8 under wing hard point, will be the EL/L-8222 EW pod built by ELTA Systems of Israel. Urals Optical Mechanical Plant (UOMZ) is supplying the 13SM infra-red search-and-track sensor (IRST), with the Zhuk-ME (N-010ME) multi-mode X-band radar coming from Phazotron NIIR Corp for the first batch of MiG-29K/KUBs only. The radar can detect airborne targets out to 150km, start tracking 10 targets out to 130km, and can engage four of them simultaneously. The radar also performs ground mapping and moving target location functions, offering a resolution of 5 metres. Vympel JSC is supplying the chaff/flare dispensers and their 50mm cartridges. For the second batch of 29 MiG-29K/KUBs, the IN will soon decide whether to equip them with the Tikhomirov NIIR-built BARS-29 passive phased-array X-band radar, or Phazotron JSC’s Zhuk-AE active phased-array radar.

 

For air dominance operations, particularly in the beyond-visual-range (BVR) fight, the MiG-29K/KUB will each have an on-board tactical information data link system (TIDLS) that can connect up to four aircraft in a full two-way link. With a range of 500km and being highly resistant to jamming, the TIDLS will display the position, bearing and speed of all four MiG-29K/KUBs in a formation on a tactical information system, including basic status information such as fuel availability and weapons state. When used in the ‘silent attack’ mode, an adversary may be aware that he is being tracked by a radar that is outside BVR air-to-air missile (AAM) range. He may not be aware that another, closer MiG-29K/KUB is receiving that tracking data and is preparing for a BVR-AAM launch without using its own radar. In addition, two radars can exchange information by the TIDLS and locate hostile targets by triangulation. Usually, three plots (echoes) are needed to track a target in the track-while-scan mode. The TIDLS also allows the radars to share plots—not just tracks—even if none of the MiG-29K/KUBs in a formation gets enough plots on its own to track the target, they may do so collectively. Each radar plot includes pulse-Doppler velocity, which provides the individual aircraft with range-rate data. Using TIDLS, two MiG-29K/KUBs can take simultaneous range-rate readings and thereby determine the target’s track instantly, thereby minimising the need for radar transmission. During EW missions, one MiG-29K/KUB will be able to track and engage a target while the wingman will simultaneously focus jamming on the same target. This will make it very difficult for the hostile airborne target to intercept or jam the radar that is tracking him.

 

Another antijamming technique that will be validated in future is for all four radars to illuminate the same target simultaneously at different frequencies, and relay the data in real-time to an airborne Kamov Ka-31 AEW helicopter acting as a tactical airborne battle management platform. The Klimov RD-33MK ‘Sea Wasp’ turbofans selected for the MiG-29K/KUB are being built by the Moscow-based V V Chernyshev Machinery Enterprise. Each turbofan develops 19,840lb thrust with afterburning, has a 1,000-hour time between-overhauls, and a total technical service life of 4,000 hours. The engine has a wider chord fan for six per cent greater airflow, full authority digital electronic control for regulating and optimizing the turbofan’s fuel-flow, a new ‘multi-section’ no-smoke combustor and three-dimensional aerodynamics in the turbine. The turbofan’s low-pressure and high-pressure compressors, combustion chamber and low-pressure/high-pressure turbines will all have special coatings to minimize the effects of salt water corrosion. The KSA-33M accessory gearbox and VK-100 auxiliary power unit have been developed by Klimov NPO. Zvezda’s K-36D-3.5 zero-zero ejection seats have been selected for the cockpit, as are MNPK Avionika’s BLP-3.5-2 ejection sequencing modules are used for preventing ejection seat collisions during a simultaneous ejection from a MiG-29KUB.

 

For increasing the flight endurance, a fully retractable L-shaped in-flight refueling probe on the port side of the forward fuselage has been installed. In addition, a 3-metre-long UPAZ-1MK aerial refueling pod has been developed by NPP Zvezda that is carried by the aircraft’s centerline pylon. When used along with four under wing drop tanks each filled with 1,150 liters of fuel, the MiG-29K/KUB will be able to operate as a ‘buddy-buddy’ aerial refueling tanker. Armaments package for the MiG-29K/KUB includes an internal 30mm GSh-301 cannon located in the port wing’s leading edge root extension; Vympel’s R-77 BVR-AAM and R-73E within-visual-range air combat missile; Zvesda-Strela’s (now part of Tactical Missiles Corp JSC) 130km-range Kh-35 Uran-E anti-ship cruise missiles; Kh-31AD Krypton supersonic anti-ship cruise missile, which has a length of 4.8 metres and 110km-range; and the Kh-31AM/PM anti radiation missile, equipped with a waveband specific seeker, which has a length of 5.2 meters and a range of 170km. The Kh-31AD is fitted with a Leninetz-designed U-505 passive radar seeker. For medium-range standoff attack using precision-guided munitions, use will be made of the Sagem Défense Sécurité-built AASM family of laser-/GPS-guided bombs that will make use of RAFAEL-built Litening-3 target acquisition/designation pods. Under the IN’s block development roadmap, RAC-MiG and Klimov will upgrade the RD-33MK to the RD-33MKV standard, which will deliver 81.4kN of thrust with afterburning, will weigh 1,145kg, will incorporate single-crystal turbine blades, and will be equipped with a swivelling nozzle can be deflected by up to 15 degrees in any direction. Thrust vectoring will be achieved by controlling a short inner segment of the nozzle. Also to be replaced will be the Zhuk-ME with most probably the Zhuk-AE active phased array radar, which will weigh 280kg, have an antenna diameter of 700mm, will contain 1,064 transmit/receive modules, have a vertical antenna reflector that can be directed 20 degrees upwards and sideways, have a power consumption of 6kW, have a target detection range of 200km, and will track 30 airborne targets simultaneously and engage eight of them. The Zhuk-AE will have a guaranteed service life of 10,000 hours, and its prototype has to date achieved the 900-hour mark. For all-weather navigation and within-visual-range air combat UOMZ is developing an integrated, fifthgeneration IRST system that comprises three separate sensors—one on the aircraft’s nose in front of the cockpit canopy, and two conformally-mounted underbelly installations. The former, called OLS-UEM and weighing 78kg, can detect and track airborne targets automatically and comprises an IR camera with a matrix of 320 x 256, a TV camera with a matrix of 640 x 480, and an eye-safe laser rangefinder. The sensor’s cover is made from leucosapphire, while the mirror scans the airspace of +/-90 degrees horizontally and -15/+60 degrees vertically. Airborne targets 45km away can be detected from the front, while the laser ranger has a 15km range. The two underbelly IRST sensors, called OLS-UM can do all of this, and also detect ground based and seaborne targets out to 40km.

 

For imparting shore-based operational conversion training-cum-proficiency training for tactical combast, a joint venture of Germany’s Rheinmetall Defence Electronics and Russia’s RAC-MIG has won the contract to supply the Indian Navy with a MiG-29K full mission simulator along with the AVIOR laser image projection system and US-based Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp’s EPXTM-500 seven-channel out-the-window visual system that will be equipped with a 3-D whole-earth terrain model and delivered with three high resolution insets. The simulator is scheduled for delivery to the Navy later this year.

[+drdoyo 2]

the airframe will be required to undergo a scheduled maintenance every 300 flight hours and technical condition checks every 1,000 hours, or every 10 years.

 

Interesting, ..... technical condition checks at 1000 hours, or (read in lieu of, whichever is sooner) 10 years. Considering that they can fly the 1000 hours off a lot sooner than 10 years to me it sounds like they aren't planning to fly them much at all. The math breakdown 1000hrs/10 years = 100 hrs a year. I regularly fly 75-90 hours a month, and have flown 118 hours in a single month before.