Russia hopeful about MIG-35's chances in IAF’s MMRCA tender

Moscow: Russian authorities expressed quiet confidence on Thursday that Russian Aircraft Corporation's MiG-35 fighter jet, which is contesting the Indian Air force's 126-aircraft medium range multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) tender will score over its Western rivals and secure the contract.

The Mig-35

"We hope that our aircraft would be the winner," Anatoly Isaikin, chief of Rosoboronexport (RoE), Russia's state-owned arms export monopoly, said.

"Russia is competing with top aircraft manufacturers of the US and Europe. Such tenders are carried out in several stages and takes time. We are in the middle and so far, no one has dropped out," he said.

According to Isaikin, the MiG-35 is an air superiority fighter which is capable of taking on the current fourth and prospective fifth generation combat aircraft.

"From the point of view of technological inputs it is virtually a fifth generation fighter, unmatched by any of the European fighters," he said.

The MiG-35 fighter jet is essentially a MiG-29 fighter platform with so many new features, including thrust vectoring engines and AESA radars, that it has been credited with a new designation by the MiG Corporation.