MOSCOW. March 12 (Interfax-AVN) - No modifications are planned to be introduced to avionics and armament of MIG-29K Fulcrum shipborne fighters that will be deployed on the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier to be delivered to the Indian Navy.
"The contract on delivering MIG-29K fighters to India has been signed. Their design has been coordinated with the customer. No one plans to modify the avionics suit or the armament," Valery Toryanin, Director General/Designer General of Russia's MIG Aircraft Corporation, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
He said that information, published in mass media, that the aircraft would allegedly be fitted with Bars radars was not true.
"The MIG-29K will be fitted with the Zhuk-ME radar," Toryanin said.
He also said that MIG had already started fulfilling the Indian contract. The first aircraft will be delivered to the customer 36 months after the contract is signed, i.e. in January 2007. The delivery of MIG-29Ks to the Indian Navy is planned to be completed by late 2008.
According to Toryanin, negotiations on signing a still larger contract are being conducted with one of the countries. "I would not want to name the country before the contract is signed," he said.
The MIG-29K Fulcrum deck-based fighter has a wing span of 12m (folded 7.8m), a length of 17.27m, and a height of 4.73m. Its maximal takeoff weight is 17,700kg, the maximal payload is 4,500kg, the afterburner-supported run requirement is 260m. The maximal speed of the aircraft is 2,300kmph. The MIG-29K is armed with a 30-mm built-in cannon, AA and AS missiles, and various aerial bombs.