Russia To Open After-sales Service Center For MiG-29 Fighters In India

Russia will set-up an after-sales service center in India for maintenance of MiG-29 fighter jets for its foreign clients.

 “We offer the contractual after-sales service to our foreign clients. Beside the delivery of the aircraft, we are ready to create the maintenance centers on the territory of the client … Such a center to service MiG-29 jets is expected to be opened in India in 2017,” Sergey Korotkov, the vice-president of the United Aircraft Corporation for innovations was quoted as saying by Sputnik Friday.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), which audited the Navy's MiG-29 programme in July last year, said that "The MiG-29K, which is a carrier-borne multi-role aircraft and the mainstay of integral fleet air defence, is riddled with problems" including engine malfunctions which means that in "a best case scenario, a MiG-29 jet will be fully fit for operations less than 50 per cent of the time it is required to be deployed."

The CAG report said that since the MiG-29K plane was inducted in 2010, more than half of its engines have been diagnosed with design-related defects. "The issue had serious flight safety implications, since in-flight engine defects had led to ten cases of single engine landings," the report said.

UAC delivered over 100 turbojet engines for Indian Navy’s MiG-29 in September last year.