India Interested in Buying MiG-35 Jets: Russian Official

India is interested in buying the Russian MiG-35 along with the MiG-29 aircraft, a top Russian official said Wednesday.

“Foreign partners are showing interest not only in the options for modernizing the MiG-29, which has been recognized as quite successful, but are also looking at the MiG-35. India is interested in both aircraft,” Andrei Yelchaninov, first deputy chairman of the board of the Military-Industrial Commission said in an interview to Interfax Wednesday.

The Indian delegation were shown Mikoyan MiG-35 & Sukhoi Su-57 aircraft during MAKS 2019 show in Russia’s Zukhovski, when export version of the MiG-35 jet was unveiled. Indian Air Force (IAF) test pilots G/C BS Reddy and W/C FL Roy flew two sorties on MiG-35 4++ generation multirole fighter aircraft during the visit.

Moscow has offered to manufacture MiG-35s jointly with India besides Transfer of Technology (ToT) if New Delhi decides to buy them.

Russia is currently testing the MiG-35, and the MiG-35UB two-seat variant.

India’s Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) approved procurement of 12 Su-30MKI fighters for $1.44 billion; and 21 MiG-29 jets for $900 million (includes upgrade of 59 MiG-29s) in July. The contract is expected to be finalized soon.

In March 2020, sources had told Defenseworld.net that Russia was planning to offer upgraded MiG-35 fighter jet equipped with an automatic landing and G-force protection systems as its entry for the Indian light fighter jet competition. The contest to build over jets for India is between Dassault Aviation (Rafale), Boeing (F/A-18 Super Hornet), Saab (Gripen), Eurofighter Typhoon, Russia (MiG-35) and Lockheed Martin (F-21).

The upgrade will bring the MiG-35 closer to the features list offered by others in the competition such as the Dassault Rafale and Lockheed Martin F-21.