Russia hopes to sell 18 MiG-35 fighter jets to Malaysia

By Boyko Nikolov

MOSCOW, ($1=71.90 Russian Rubles) – Malaysia has launched a tender procedure to strengthen its air force, learned BulgarianMilitary.com, citing information from the Ministry of Defense of the Asian country. Part of the auction includes the purchase of fighters.

Russian sources confirmed to BulgarianMilitary.com that Moscow intends to participate in the tender, offering its Malaysian counterparts to buy 18 MiG-35 units – one of the last Russian-made fighters. If, after the auction, Malaysia chooses the Russian MiG, the country will become the first in the world, after Russia, to acquire this type of fighter. We remind you that so far there is only interest from India and Egypt, but no concrete action by the two governments to acquire the MiG-35.

According to Russian sources, Russia has a chance to win the tender due to two indicators – low price and high technical and combat performance.

The Malaysian edition of The Edge Malaysia also confirmed Russia’s interest in offering this particular fighter. The Malaysian edition reminds that to date Russia only operates this aircraft but recalls that it was the MiG-35 that was used in the short war between Azerbaijan and Armenia for Nagorno-Karabakh and then Baku showed serious interest in buying it.

MiG-35 Fulcrum-F

The RSK MiG-35 multi-purpose combat aircraft is a modernized version of the Soviet MiG-29M2. Unofficially, the MiG-35 is also called the Super Fulcrum. The MiG-35 is currently available in two versions, the single-seat MiG-35 and the two-seat MiG-35D.

In the mid-1990s, the need to modernize the MiG-29 model became increasingly clear. The design goals were more versatile applications and the coordination with new air-to-air and air-to-ground weapon systems. In addition, the fuel capacity and thus the range should be increased and the workload of the pilot should be reduced by modern cockpit equipment.

From a purely external point of view, the changes compared to the MiG-29 model appeared to be minor, but the cell based on the MiG-29K variant, which was suitable for the carrier, was largely completely redesigned.

Above all, clearly visible changes are enlarged air inlets and a new kind of protective net against foreign bodies in the air inlets. The previous additional air intakes on the top were no longer available, and the space freed up was used for additional tanks.

The fuselage hump has been enlarged and now runs to the end of the fuselage. An enlarged air brake was installed on the hump. The originally rounded edges of the wing root extensions (LERX) were designed with sharp edges in order to improve the generation of buoyant air vortices in extreme flight conditions.

The MiG-35 was developed in the city of Luchowizy in the Moscow Oblast.

Up until 2013, 37 aircraft were expected to be procured before it became known that the industry could not have provided the required capacity. The purchase was initially postponed to 2016. At the time of announcing the delivery of two aircraft to the Department of Defense for testing in 2016, no definitive procurement contract was signed.

In January 2017, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev, commander-in-chief of the Russian Air and Space Forces, announced that all light fighter planes in Russia should be replaced by MiG-35 multi-purpose combat aircraft.

There is a total need for 170 comparable aircraft, but he did not give a definite date for this. The previous day, it had been announced that the Russian MiG-35 multi-purpose combat aircraft had completed its first sightseeing flight in Luchowizy near Moscow on January 27.

In 2017, the leadership of the Russian Air Force announced that after successfully completing the flight tests, an order for 30 MiG-35s would be placed.

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