The MiG-29 The Soviet's Answer to the F-16

Image by Günter Lohmeyer from Pixabay

Introduction :

The cold war battle for the skies involved two legendary fighter jets though they never actually participated in direct combat involving the soviet union and the united states.

The debates over which is the better aircraft still rage to this day, the sleek reliable American F-16 or the rugged, rapid Soviet MiG-29.

Now even though this comparison is made all the time, the two aircraft serve different purposes.

The F-16 was always designed as a light cost-effective multi-role jet to support the more expensive f-15.

While the MiG-29 was a typical air superiority fighter jet not overly concerned with avionics or range but rather with dazzling manoeuvrability.

In this article, we'll be focusing on the MiG-29 a true halter shelter of an aircraft capable of the most astonishing high-speed manoeuvres and one which in the west at least came to personify the threat of the red enemy.

But it was also an aircraft that remained mysterious to most outside the soviet union until its collapse in 1991.

The cold war saw many battles most of which were never actually fought in physical terms it was often the battle for prestige and tactical superiority which pushed the USA and the soviet union to such extraordinary lengths. 

Whether it was space flight, shipbuilding, nuclear weapons or aviation the stance was often simple mine has to be bigger and better than yours or at least look like it the results were some monstrous pieces of military hardware such as the American aircraft carriers and the soviet typhoon class submarines. 

The Need :

In the 1960s and 1970s, the battle for the skies really began to heat up during the Vietnam war.

The North Vietnamese air force was using the MiG-17 an aircraft produced in the soviet union from 1952 and which had begun to challenge the low-altitude bombers being used by the US at the time.

In the early days of the Korean war which had ended in 1953 the US had enjoyed relative air superiority but now things were very different in response to this challenge.

The U.S developed the F-4 phantom. A multi-role fighter jet the soviets matched it with the MiG-23 but the Americans raised the stakes further with the F-15 eagle which entered service in 1972.

This was generally how things sort of went at the time the most elaborate form of poker that the world had ever seen.

The F-15 was an excellent aircraft and the soviets really knew it there was only one thing to do therefore in 1974 the development of a new aircraft began designated MiG-29a with its first flight taking place on the 6th of October 1977.

About three years later, the prototype was first spotted by American surveillance the following month and the unknown aircraft was given the name RAM l because it had been sited near the town of Romansky southeast of Moscow.

As with many pieces of hardware on both sides it was given different names by NATO and the soviets those in the west gave it the nickname fulcrum a while to the soviets it was a MiG-29a. 

Over the years several upgrades have been added to the MiG-29 most significantly to increase the weapon load to 4000 kilograms though unfortunately, we don't know what the original load was secrecy and all that they also had a jamming system added inside the upper fuselage and an increase in fuel capacity though as we will go into shortly its fuel capacity doesn't exactly equate to a long flight range even now these upgrades were added as standard to newly built MiG-29s but they were also upgraded on older models.

Image by Günter Lohmeyer from Pixabay

F-16

Exports :

In total it's believed that over 1,600 MiG-29s have been built.

The MiG-29s were exported to many Warsaw pact countries and even some non-pact countries.

During the 1980s these aircraft had considerably less capable avionics and were not able to carry nuclear weapons.

Overall the MiG-29 has been exported to 29 countries around the world ranging from as far west as Peru and as far east as Myanmar.

Most of the countries operating the aircraft were once part of the soviet union.

With Poland and Bulgaria, the only countries included in NATO to use the aircraft.

Roughly 793 MiG-29s are thought to be in operation around the world today making it still one of the most popular fighter jets ever.

But this number does lag way behind the estimated 2242 F-16s being used around the globe but the current cost of a MiG-29 is about 23.7 million dollars which is about 12 million cheaper than its American rival with that in mind.

It's not really surprising that almost all of the countries that have bought MiG-29s have been developing nations.

It's probably fair to say that when the MiG-29 appeared on the scene it worried the Americans it quickly became clear that the soviet union had developed an aircraft that could directly rival the very best the United States could offer and maybe even beat it.

Specification :

The MiG-29 has mid-mounted swept wings at a 40-degree angle meaning they point backwards rather than straight across and include blended leading-edge root extensions which are small additions on the wings that are designed to improve the airflow at high angles.

The airframe is primarily constructed with aluminium and distressed for up to 9g manoeuvres considering that a typical space launch will experience three g's that's really quite impressive the plane includes a limiter which is designed to limit the plane's g-force but this can be turned off manually which is particularly cool. 

The MiG-29 is 17.32 meters in length with a wingspan of 11.36 meters making it slightly larger than the F-16.

The MiG-29 also has a slightly larger fuel capacity with 3500 kilograms compared to 3200 kilograms on the American jet but the F-16 does have a considerably longer range of 4216 kilometres compared to the MiG-29 frankly rather poor 1429 kilometres but it was never really designed for long-range attacks that's not what it was for.

The MiG-29 also has faster acceleration which comes from two Klimov RD-33 turbofan engines each capable of producing 11,240 pound-feet of thrust and 18,277 pound-feet of thrust during afterburn.

Afterburn is a special component of the engine which gives it a significant boost in thrust as often used in combat situations or when taking off.

Obviously, it uses considerably more fuel which is why an aircraft doesn't have it on all the time.

The F-16 on the other hand only has one engine a General Electric F-110 GE 129 turbofan with 17,155 pound-feet dry thrust and 29,500 pound-feet with its afterburner on.

In terms of speed the MiG-29 has the  edge with a maximum speed of Mach 2.25 this compares to the F-16s Mach 2.05. 

It's also got a better climb speed of 300 meters a second versus 254 meters a second.

Of the American plane the Soviet aircraft also has a higher ceiling of 18,000 meters against the F-16 15,000 meters.

MiG-29

F-16

The MiG also outdoes the F-16 in terms of manoeuvrability.

The truly extraordinary acrobatics this aircraft can perform is down to super manoeuvrability.

This is a capability that allows the MiG-29 to execute tactical manoeuvres which completely exceed the design limits of purely aerodynamic manoeuvrability which the F-16 relies on.

This is probably best characterized by something called the cobra manoeuvre which is a pretty astonishing act that does seem to defy basically every law of aviation.

It involves the plane basically travelling at a median speed and then suddenly rearing up its nose in the air to a vertical position which stalls the plane and effectively uses it as a break the nose is then lowered again and the plane continues on its way without losing any altitude at all this is a pretty dazzling sight, this is truly a dazzling site probably the biggest differences between super manoeuvrability and standard aerodynamic manoeuvrability.

The thrust to weight ratio which is much higher with super manoeuvrability and also the ability to retain at least some control during a stall.

All fourth-generation and above Russian fighter jets now use super manoeuvrability along with the American F-22 raptor.

Drawbacks :

On paper so far it sounds like the MiG-29 is significantly better than the f-16 and wouldn't it be easy if it was that simple but it certainly comes with its drawbacks so let's talk about those.

While they maybe fast and great at manoeuvring they do not age well.

Its service the expectancy of 2500 hours pales in comparison to the 6000 hours that the F-16 would typically serve.

Most seem to agree that its senses avionics radar and cockpit setup is also far inferior to the American plane with pilots in a MiG-29 needing to pay much closer attention to their instruments than those in the F-16.

In short, the F-16 has a much more comfortable flying companion than the manic MiG-29 so I guess the choice is fast and great at turning but will quickly fall apart or slightly slower easier to fly and with a longer life expectancy.

Armament :

The MiG-29 comes with a single GSh-30-1 30-millimetre cannon in the port wing route.

Earlier versions of the plane came with 150 rounds though later models have seen that reduced to 100.

3 pylons sit under each wing though some variations have 4.

These pylons can either carry a 1150 litre fuel tank, one pair of R27 medium-range air-to-air missile, unguided bombs or rockets.

The outer pylons normally carry R-73 dogfight air-to-air missiles.

As I mentioned earlier the soviet versions of the MiG-29 which were not exported could carry a single nuclear bomb on the port import station.

Unknown Fact :

In 1997 a deal got done that shook the aviation world America purchased 21 MiG-29s.

These were not purchased from Russia but rather from Moldova an ex-soviet country looking to raise some much-needed cash from the military hardware that had been left in the country.

Officially the deal was done to stop the MiG-29s from being sold to Iran who were then not exactly on friendly terms with the United States.

US officials must have been salivating over the opportunity to get their hands on this aircraft that they had been warily eyeing for so many years.

This infuriated Russia but they were in no position to prevent the deal.

The planes have since been carefully examined much of the technology is now classified by the Americans and a number sit in aviation museums across the country.

Military Actions :

While the MiG-29 has often been used as more of a deterrent and a counterweight to American aircraft it has seen plenty of use in real combat much of it outside of the soviet union or later Russia.

The first international customer was India which bought 66 MiG-29s in 1980. the aircraft was heavily involved in the 1999 Kargil war between India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir.

The first European nation outside the Soviet Union to use the MiG-29 was Yugoslavia which purchased 16 in 1987- 1988.

During the breakup of the country in 1991, the MiGs only saw limited combat but were used in the attack on the Croatian government residence on the 7th of October 1991.

During the Kosovo war which began in February 1998 six MiG-29s were destroyed by NATO forces.

The Gulf had seen plenty of combat involving the MiGs both Iraq and Iran used them during the war between the two countries that began in 1988.

They've also been heavily used in Syria to attack the free Syrian army and potentially involved in attacks on villages in Sudan but this hasn't been verified 

Finally, Ukraine has seen plenty of incidents involving MiG-29s during Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

45 MiGs were captured by Russian forces apparently Russian soldiers dismantled them and then shipped them across the border back to Ukraine who in turn put them back together to be used in the ongoing conflict in the east of the country against insurgents who looked remarkably Russian-like whether.

Russia was attempting some kind of peaceful diplomatic act with this would not entirely sure but it's certainly one of the stranger stories from the war and remember Russia and Ukraine were never technically at war over Crimea with many of the soldiers taking part doing so without Russian insignias and with the slightly dubious 95 referendum vote in favour of Russian rule maybe this contributed to the MiG-29 merry-go-round as a somewhat gracious act. 

Planned Upgrade :

During the 1980s the US began developing the costly F-22 raptor a stealth tactical fighter that would raise the bar once again while the MiG-29 was proving a great success soviet authorities once again demanded a design upgrade but this was a big step up and the development costs quickly spiralled upwards.

However, the soviet union was nothing if not utterly belligerent in its desire to keep up with the United States by the end of the decade plans were emerging of an excellent although very expensive aircraft construction of an early prototype was halfway through when the soviet union collapsed in 1991 and while full-scale mock-ups were completed the plane itself was not and plans for the so-called 144 were shelved due to high costs.

The Russian government officially cancelled the design in 1997 but and this is where things get a little strange again the plane appears to have been completed with an alternative source of income the company behind it.

Mikoyan had financial problems at the time which led to a restructuring of the company it's not entirely clear whether this was financed by private money there were a few oligarchs around at that time or perhaps even a government-backed channel but the following year the Russian government announced the existence of the aircraft which completed quite a turnaround in just a year on the 29th of February 2000.

It took to the skies for the first and actually the last time though no reason has ever been made public the fact that this costly long-term project came to such an abrupt end after only one test flight probably points to some significant structural problems the replacement for the MiG-29 had failed but one has finally now arrived that's the MiG-35 and it's got vastly improved avionics and weapon systems and it was officially unveiled to the world in 2007 but only entered service in 2019 it is truly a remarkable plane.

Conclusion :

There is something astonishing about watching the MiG-29 in action ducking diving rolling and of course performing the absolutely absurd cobra manoeuvre this plane sometimes seems more like a stunt aircraft than a military one but make no mistake about it this is a devastating bringer of death just an acrobatic cartwheeling logic-defying bringer of death.