MiG-29K Multirole Fighter Aircraft | UPSC

• The Navy is expected to start receiving new twin-engine aircraft carrier-based fighter aircraft being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) by 2032 .
• This will be a replacement for the Russian MiG-29K carrier jets in service.

MiG-29K

• The Mikoyan MiG-29K is a Russian all-weather carrier-based multirole fighter aircraft developed by the Mikoyan Design Bureau.
• The MiG-29K was developed in the late 1980s from the MiG-29M.
• Mikoyan describes it as a 4+ generation aircraft.

FEATURES

• HOTAS (hands-on-throttle-and-stick) controls.
• Air-to-air missiles.
• Along with missiles for anti-ship and anti-radar operations.
• It has several ground/strike precision-guided weapons.
• The Navy currently has 45 Russian MiG-29K aircraft .

THE REPLACEMENT

• It will replace the MiG-29Ks in service which are scheduled to start going out by 2034.

• Last January, the naval Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) successfully completed arrested landing and take-off on board Vikramaditya and has since undertaken several trials.

DECK-BASED FIGHTER

• Based on the experience of the carrier landing, the DRDO has offered to develop a twin-engine deck-based fighter for the Navy.
• With the successful deck-landing, they decided to drop the naval LCA Mk2 and move on to the twin-engine jet.
• The new jet being developed by DRDO should be ready by 2026.