Article Posted on : - Mar 01, 2012

The MiG-29K naval fighter. A MiG photo

MOSCOW (BNS): Russian aircraft maker MiG Corporation has received a contract from the country's Defence Ministry to deliver 20 MiG-29K and four MiG-29KUB carrier-based fighter jets to the Russian Navy, according to a media report.

"Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and MiG General Director Sergei Korotkov have signed the contract for the delivery of MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB carrier-based fighters," Ria Novosti reported on Wednesday quoting a MiG statement.

The company will deliver the naval combat jets between 2013 and 2015, the report said.

The aircraft will operate from Russia's sole operational aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, with the Northern Fleet based in Murmansk, it said, adding that the value of the deal was not disclosed.

The fighter jets will be armed with a wide variety of air-to-air and air-to-surface weaponry.

Russia's long term defence ally India has also ordered 16 MiG-29K/KUB naval variant of the multirole MiG-29 land-based fighters. The new jets will operate from the refurbished Russian-built aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov that will be rechristened and inducted into the Indian Navy as INS Vikramaditya later this year.

Indian Navy has so far received 11 such jets that include 9 single seater MiG-29Ks and 2 double seater trainer-cum-fighter MiG-29KUBs.

India is the only customer of the MiG-29K fighters, 45 of which are slated to be inducted into service in next few years at the Navy's INS Hansa air base and will be operated from INS Vikramaditya.