Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 Fulcrum - History, Design, Performance & Dissection (Part 2)

guess who we have here

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the HMD sensor makes a return

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Gaijin will slap “not enough info” and move on.

@kizvy The level of cluelessness these days is simply incredible.
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/7OHIaGNYNwlf

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mixed-leaning-loved-trope-theyre-a-little-confused-but-they-v0-d00lxonta5ig1

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Not shocking, Algeria buys the lot when it comes to Russian things, they got T/220 and supposedly 38Ms too.

Funnily enough he is still right when it comes to laser guided weapons, since OLS-M on 9.15 does have a laser designator. Should work similar to Su-30MK2

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hope this will push gaijin to at least giving 29M 120 countermeasures. It’s unironically the worst performing MiG-29 out of the bunch
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SMT and N perform significantly better

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Doesn’t help that It’s a squadron vehicle, meaning that people can just buy it and play it which in turn attracts more, less experienced players

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People also buy Su-30MK2/MKK but they still perform well enough.

MiG-29M problems lies in its flight performance, br placement and countermeasures.

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Because they are undertiered and good to the point even a less experienced player can pick them up and do well in them, just as it was for the rafale for example.

Also i don’t disagree, i’m just saying that the 29M poor statistical performance do come from lackluster poor flight performance and what not, but also being available to lesser experienced players, from the get go.

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Mikoyan when asked to give gen 2 Fulcrums more than 32 Flares

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J-15T gonna have a worthy opponent if this will remain the same.
Gaijin probably can shoehorn UV-5-08 for at least 56 countermeasures.

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As of now this plane is so trash smh

or the BVP-32-50s


would be more accurate since its used by the same airframe type

Well, 64 is certainly better than 56, but something tells me that gaijin would consider this “unfair” compared to J-15T and we will be stuck with 32 countermeasures. At least MiG-35 won’t go past 14.0, being in a similar place as F-15E, having better missiles but mechanical radar… Unles Gaijin shoehorns Zhuk-AE into MiG-35 like they did with SM2

I’ve looked a lot into the sensors and antennas on MiG-29s and imma throw hands with Mikoyan, Gaijin and all authors of the books about Fulcrums.
First, Gordon states that little antenna with a number 28 is a part of SPO-15

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Same goes for this page from a magazine (here it goes with number 58)

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Which is actually bullshit because MiG-29SMT 9.18, that is known to have SPO-15 doesn’t have those antennas

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Same goes for 9.19 before they recieved L-150 antennas.

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i’ve found this scheme that says that this antenna is part of the IFF suite, which is more sensible, because Russia switched from old Kremniy-2 IFF to new Izd 60 Parol`.

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This also is confirmed by MiG-29SD (aka MiG-29N) which is known to have SPO-15 but it also lacks those antennas.

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Next funny thing is the Antennas 89 and 91 in Gordon book. 89 is stated to be SO-69 transponder antenna and 91 is Pion-NM.
But then i found this photo of 9.13 tail and, while it’s very difficult to read, it states that the bottom one is actually SO-69 and top one is Pion

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Gaijin, hovewer said “don’t care” and made it into a formation light

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They even have writing on the skin that says that this is an antenna lmao. (Tho this writing actually goes in line with Gordon book, naming top one SO-69 and the bottom one Pion-NM)

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Part dos

Now SPO-15, this one was quite interesting. If those little knobs are not part of it, then frontal antennas most likely are hidden in LERX compartments. But for the 2 rear antennas, they actually differ between 9.12 and 9.13
On the 9.12 they are apparently on the wing tips, right behind formation lights. (in this regard all 3 sources are saying the same, and most likely correct)

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MiG-29SMT 9.18 (it is made on 9.12 airframe)


MiG-29 9.12A

MIG-29 9.12B

Gaijin obviously painted them as formation lights (this is becoming a pattern)

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For the 9.13, because wing tips are now occupied by Gardenia ECM antennas, SPO-15 was moved to the inner side of both tails

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Left one is painted red for some reason

here again, you can even see the writing that most likely says “Антенна Л-006”

Gaijin, obviously, didn’t gave a shit at all

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But when it comes to Mikoyan, i am trying to understand the genius behind the MiG-29M antennas

First of all, this time Gaijin did not paint the antenna on the right tail as a formation light… But MiG-29M doesn’t even have one to begin with.

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Place that it occupied on Gen 1 Fulcrums is now taken by completely new sensor, and the only similar looking one i could find is on Flankers, on the left tail as well.

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The antenna below is now also the same shape as Pion-NM or SO-69 (depending on who’s correct, Gordon or people that painted that MIG-29 9.13)
And, again, i found similar layout on a flanker, but now it’s Su-30SM

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This antenna also retains 2 little knobs on both sides, similarly to 9.12 and 9.13 (but is absent on 9.18 and 9.19 so i believe that it is also part of Kremniy-2 IFF)
All in all details on In-game MiGs are an absolute mess, just like on Su-27s (their tail sensors are almost randomly picked and placed in-game)

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Very good research.

The effort and dedication of all of you is appreciated, but unfortunately nothing is going to change. I simply have zero faith and don’t expect anything anymore, after many years and a lot of time spent trying to change something

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It’s mostly surface level and only affects visuals as far as War Thunder is concerned, but thanks anyway. At least it allows to see some changes in avionics between airframes.

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Sadly Russia chose BVP-16-50s or whatever they’re called for their MiG-29Kr/KUBr and MiG-35s.

BVP-32-50 as mentioned below is almost exclusively MiG-29M/M2.

Also technically no proof either can fit UV-5-08

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All of the pods are appliqué, so they technically only require socket to plug in, and some sort of attachment system to be kept in place. But that is a big stretch, I agree, latches can be of different dimensions, sockets of different standards and so on. The most realistically possible combination is MiG-35 + BVP-32-50, because both airframes share maximum similarity and 35 is most likely developed from 29M