India Planning to procure Malaysian Mig-29N?

India Planning to procure Malaysian Mig-29N?
Published March 27, 2017
SOURCE: VISHAL KARPE / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG



According to Alan Warnes, Assistant Editor for leading military aviation magazine ” AirForces Monthly” who attended 14th Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (Lima) exhibition 2017 In Malaysia in his latest tweet has said that as per his reliable sources Indian Air Force has shown Interest in procuring Mikoyan MiG-29N operated by Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF).

The Royal Malaysian Air Force ( RMAF ) in 1995 had procured 18 MiG-29N from Russia against expert advice from its own Defence Analyst and Ex-RMAF officials since RMAF was accustomed to fielding fighters from the West and in particular from the United States.

Once Procured MiG-29N turned out to be expensive and difficult to maintain and in 2010, with less than 15 years in service it was decided to be retired but that was pushed back to 2015 and now again it has been decided to be retired by 2020.

RMAF at present has 10 MiG-29N and 2 MiG-29NU ( Trainers) in its fleet and under its MRCA replacement program has currently narrowed down to 4 types of aircraft (Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and Saab JAS 39 Gripen) will replace MiG-29N.

Indian Air Force being the first international customer of the MiG-29 had procured 50 MiG-29A from the Soviet Union in 1985 and recently the whole fleet has been upgraded to UPG standard which will add another 15 years to the operational life of the MiG-29s in IAF fleet.

http://idrw.org/india-planning-to-procure-malaysian-mig-29n/

 

Garbage news since India has resources to buy new state of the art jet from any country why they go for used near end service life jets?

 

Because these fighters are cheaper to procure and we already have the operational experience with that type. That makes it a good choice to fill the gaps if we upgrade them to the UPG level, although I would prefer Qatari M2K-5s

 

total garbage news... done by some illiterate journalist.

 

Why ppl dismiss it as garbage news. It might be right, who knows. India is suffering from depleting fleet scenario. 18 mig29s from Malaysia might help us in this regard. We don't have to issue tender and no technical evaluation needed. The process will be fast and planes can be bought here in few months. Once we have our sanctioned strength, these can be discarded or just continue in service as per the wish of IAF

 

IF the LCA Tejas, Rafale and PAK FA acquisition/production processes keep lagging the way they have been, I honestly don't see anything wrong with buying these MiG 29s as well as UAE/Qatar's Mirage 2000's and upgrading them as a short term measure to make up for the serious drop in numbers. In the case of the MiG 29s, we could upgrade them to the latest UPG standard.

 

If that's the case , or by doing so Malaysians are buying our weapons then its ok.

Otherwise logic says, do whatever you want , but never buy a 2nd Soviet Weapon. [untill it's a SSN]

 

They have even more but if I'm not wrong, they haven't decided to replace them yet, while Qatar already has ordered Rafales.

 

because India can order 60 mig 29 and will get them on fast delivery basis from russia.

 

Logically Speaking IAF is finding ways to maintain its squadron numbers. And this is a easy buy as India possess the Upgrade capacity and these Jets have enough life left. Because there is not going to any imports of 300 Jets in another 4 to 5 years nor HAL can produce them Mk1 or Mk2

 

We need these fighters only to bridge the gap till new fighters like LCA arrives in sufficient numbers, so any fighter that is available in a short time frame, would be an alternative, UAE will take time.

 

But new Migs would be costlier and have to be used for 30 to 40 years, which IAF doesn't want. Taking 2nd hand fighters would be a chance to phase them out after 10 to 15 years, when our Migs will be phased out as well.