Russia’s Mig-35 Fulcrum Has Major Problems

All is not what it seems. 

Dave Majumdar [2]

As with many Russian military project, things are not always what they seem… Such is the case with the new RSK-MiG MiG-35 Fulcrum-F [3].

The current iteration of the Mikoyan MiG-35 is not the advanced warplane that India rejected in favor of the French Dassault Rafale in 2011. Rather, the new MiG-35 is a somewhat upgraded land-based version of the MiG-29KR carrier variant of the long-serving Fulcrum. It has no thrust vectoring controls and lacks an active electronically scanned array radar even though Russia has the technology.

“The current plane is essentially an upgrade of the MiG-29KR,” a Russian industry source told me. “There is no thrust vectoring. And the lack of an AESA radar is of a more cost problem from a procurement standpoint rather than a technical problem.”

But why the elaborate video conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin if [4] the new fighter is just a rewarmed version of the MiG-29KR? The answer is simple: Marketing.

Indeed, the entire MiG-35 project has one goal—keep RSK-MiG in business. In Russia, there is precedent for such a project, the Sukhoi Su-30M2 project existed solely to keep airframe manufacturer KnAAPO in business.

“The entire MiG-35 project exists only in order to maintain the production line of RSK-MiG as well as for export,” the source continued. “Technical specifications were a secondary factor. The MoD [Ministry of Defense] wants an AESA radar, but wants it [the MiG-35] as cheaply as possible. Foreign customers, who can buy MiGs, are still buying the jet without an AESA due to cost factors.”