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World Defense & Security News - Russia
 
 
Russia integrating Syrian experience into MiG-35 fighter program
 
The counter-terrorism operation of Russia`s Aerospace Forces (VKS) in Syria has demonstrated the high combat efficiency of Russian-made aviation equipment in action. In particular, both Russian and Syrian MiG-29 fighter jets have been involved in the combat.
     
MiG 35 Syrian experience 640 001A MiG-35 performing flight display during MAKS 2017
     
The Syrian MiG-29s that had been brought into service in the late 1980s were among the first to engage the terrorists. In Autumn 2016, Russia`s Naval Aviation started combat missions in Syria, piloting the new MiG-29K/KUB fighter jets; other types of combat aircraft were stationed at the Humaymim airbase also. The gained operational experience is now being introduced to advanced aircraft.

"Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, the MiG-29K/KUBs had been accomplishing reconnaissance and bombing missions, owing to the deep modernization of the aviation complexes and the reconsideration of their functions and role in modern combat. Since the deployment of Russia`s air group in the Syrian Arab Republic, the MiGs practiced the usage of all the existing guided and non-guided air-to-surface weapons in all the available modes," Anastasia Kravchenko, the official representative of the MiG Russian Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of the United Aircraft Corporation, told the official daily of the Dubai Airshow 2017, ShowNews.

According to her, the cumulative experience is incorporated in the MiG-35 program, on the pre-production prototypes of which the most sophisticated developments and technical solutions are being tested. The preliminary flight tests of the MiG-35 stand in stark difference to those of other programs, owing to the changes of the aircraft`s working mode against ground targets, a substantially reinforced protection suite and assets to detect an enemy, and the introduction of a number of other technological solutions.

The MiG-35`s armament suite has been reinforced with advanced air-launched weapons, including long-range ones that allow target engagement at stand-off ranges. The fighter`s new target detection and early warning systems that comprise an optical locating station, an active electronically scanned array (AESA), an integrated radar and other subsystems have demonstrated their capabilities to work in more than 50 modes during their trials. An extended armament suite, including guided and non-guided air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles fitted with various guidance systems, has been successfully tested.

The MiG-35`s air-to-surface weapons have been shored up with the systems that allow the usage of the weapons against the targets lased by either a new-generation integrated laser or an external ground or aerial laser. "Despite the fact that the study of the new fighter`s capabilities will be a lengthy process, the decision to incorporate the MiG-35 aviation complexes will be made at an early date," she pointed out.

Since 2006, MiG has been developing unmanned aerial systems (UAS) with high-speed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and a large number of research-and-development works (including the works to evaluate signatures, using a full-scale UAV mockup) have been carried out in accordance with the company`s own initiative and state orders. At present, the MiG Corporation has created a scientific-and-technological advance and hammered out a concept of cooperation to create a high-speed UAS. The experience gained in Syria together with modern developments in the UAV area would help implement principally new technological solutions for air combat at an early date.
     
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