Article Posted on : - Jan 29, 2010

The MiG-35 fighter is a contender in the IAF's MMRCA deal. A MiG Photo

MOSCOW (PTI): Russia has expressed optimism that the MiG-35 fighter aircraft fielded by it in the Indian Air Force's tender for acquisition of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) will prove an edge over its Western rivals and ultimately win the contract.

“We hope that our aircraft would be the winner,” chief of Rosoboronexport (ROE), Russia's sole state intermediary agency for export-import of defence-related technologies and services, Anatoly Isaikin 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.

Isaikin said MiG-35 is an air superiority fighter 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.

ROE has fielded the MiG-35 fighter aircraft developed by RAC MiG against American rivals F-16 of Lockheed Martin and F/A-18 of Boeing, France's Rafale, Swedish JAS-39 Gripen (SAAB) and European Eurofighter Typhoon (EADS).

ROE's exports in 2009 amounted to $7.4 billion of which over 50 per cent were related to fighter aircraft, Isaikin told a press conference here on Thursday.

“India, Algeria, China, Venezuela, Malaysia and Syria were among the major buyers of Russian fighters,” he said.

Under the Sukhoi deal, India is receiving kits and semi-knocked-down Su-30MKI multi-role fighter aircraft for assembly at HAL factories in the country.

Last year, Russia also shipped four MiG-29K naval fighters for deployment on the INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov), which is expected to join the Indian Navy after New Delhi and Moscow settle their dispute over the cost of modernisation of the Soviet-built aircraft carrier.