Yes, they were broke boys and still do not have money these days either. Does not mean it has to be one source or the other.
However, it is also a design philosophy flaw to anyone who has studied on the development of both Mikoyan and Sukhoi.
That it is Mikoyan who takes a good design and comes out with 20 variants until the original design is no longer recognizable or operates the same. All in the cheapest effort to stay relevant and “modern” without spending the resource to develop a platform designed specifically for the new requirement at hand.
Only Mikoyan will kick a dead horse over and over and try to make a fighter such as the Mig29 which was always originally a short-range point defense fighter, shove fuel in it and all the bells and whistles and expect it to magically become a strategic fighter with the same capability of the Su27.
The SMT is a failure of development doctrine that was always present and evident in other designs when the Soviet Union was most prosperous.
Mikoyan knows the Mig29 is originally a short-range, point defense Frontal Aviation asset and was perfect in that role. Mikoyan knows that the platform has very poor future sustainability and offers little to zero room for upgradeability in avionic suites and even the radar is very limited in how upgradeable it is. Its nose was designed too small to offer continual upgrades and any radar performance capability that can be squeezed out of it is irrelevant to the competition it would even face anyway. So obviously a new platform is required to meet the demands of Mikoyan that the Mig29 was not ever designed to carry out, right?
Nope! They still continue well into the 21st century looking for ways to cram capability into the same dead platform and shove fuel in every compartment disrupting and enlarging its mass when everyone knows that no matter what Mikoyan does to the Mig29 at the end of the day because it will never have the same radar capability and upgradeability as well as sheer number of missiles a Flanker can bring to an engagement over any kind of possible upgraded Mig29.
Still not quite so.!
MiG-29SMT is an initiative development of MAPO MiG-focused on the export market …
By order of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, programs were resumed-MiG-29M/MiG-29K/Su-35 …
MiG-29M2(9-15D)-later received the export name-MiG-35…in the future, they decided to use this name for Russia-and the MiG-29M/M2-for export …
the MiG-29SMT (9-19)-was adopted by the Russian Air Force-because of state support for Aircraft factories (preservation of production)…
MiG-29SMT (9-19)-were in service with the air defense regiment…They were decommissioned in 2018 and have been offered for the Indian Air Force since 2020…In the summer of 2023, the Indian Air Force decided to modernize the 2nd stage for its MiG-29SMT (9-20_local name MiG-29UPG) and extend the service life until 2037…
MiG-29SMT(9-19R)-under the same state support program, they were made from the groundwork under an unarilized contract with Syria (MiG-29M/M2) and some other new airframe remaining in Factory storage warehouses…(Optimization of production capacities + Restructuring of the Russian Aviation Industry)…
All MiG-29SMT/UBT(9-19R/9-53R)-are in the 116 CBP (Russian squadron “Aggressor”)- There are also all built MiG-35 and several Su-35S…
According to unconfirmed reports on the Russian 9-19R, the N-041 Radar was installed and the Weapons Control System was changed …
In any case, the State tests of the N-041 Radar as part of the 9-19R were completed in December 2017 (the act was approved on 12/29/2017).
Mikoyan isn’t trash “quantity over quality”, in fact, until the creation of the su-27 it was the most famous and feared manufacturer from the East (remember mig-15, 17, 19, 21, 25, 31, ). For it’s era the mig-29 was an amazing aircraft and a very good competitor to the viper, what killed the fulcrum’s reputation was the direct consequences of the fall of the Soviet Union when a lot of projects and ideas had to be abandoned and some vehicles were kinda forgotten, one of them being the mig-29. Speaking about the game while i don’t know about the SMT’s performance i’m damn sure that the f-16 shouldn’t be performing how it is rn.
At least as it stand the RAF tested the F.3 against GAF MIG-29’s and found this;
Highlights are the radar was unable to filter out the Fox Hunters I-Band emissions as such their radar scope was full of noise (akin to jamming).
The SPO-15 was completely blind when the MIG-29 is using its own radar so you’d need to pick between having a usable RWR or a radar.
Frankly it was hot garbage. And was only a threat once it entered the merge thanks to R-73.
Honestly I am kind of sceptical of this claim. This report is the only time I have seen this being mentioned as an issue. Not in interviews with former GAF MiG pilots, operating manuals, or books.
I agree it’s kinda a general consensus that the fulcrum wasn’t the best 4th gen aircraft for BVR engagements, i wouldn’t say hot trash, maybe mediocre, but i’m sure that If the USSR didn’t fell they would further develop the aircraft and fill some holes… Anyways, INGAME rn the mig destroys the f16 bvr-wise but gets stomped when both Merge.
That is a possibility, I will have to look into it further. I also find it interesting that no use of IRST is mentioned. I would have thought it would be quite useful given the circumstances.
As for the MiG-29 being being hot garbage… It’s kinda funny, MiG pilots held the same opinion for the opposite reason with regards to the F.3. if the F.3 failed to score against the MiG in BVR, it was dead, which according to the report still happened in many of the engagements.
Indeed, really shows how the R-73 was holding the airframe up. Had the F.3 had a HOBS missile at the time I would imagine it would’ve been alot closer in the visual merge with the 29G still holding the maneuverability advantage.
I don’t think the IRST would be reliable enough. Under perfect conditions (clear sky, low-mid alt) the IRST can detect a MiG-21 traveling sideways and away from the MiG-29 (about 30° off the 3-9 line) at 15 km and lock at 8-10 km. Add ground clutter / clouds / sun and that distance drops. Make the enemy travel head on and you might see lock ranges below 5 km. Couple it with the limited coverage and you have yourself a sensor that is nice and stealthy, but can’t be used to ensure good SA under a lot of conditions.
Granted, if the target is afterburning the lock ranges can be multiplied 2-3 times, but how often do pilots go in AB without being sure that there is a threat?
RWR is confused by the onboard radar due to RF overspill. The Radar is also “jammed” by the Fox Hunters I-Band emissions filling the MIG-29’s radar scope with noise.
