Russia’s MiG-35 Fighter to Enter Pilot Batch Production

Russia’s MiG-35 jet the 4++ generation fighter from MiG, will soon be entering pilot batch production.

The aircraft has received a preliminary certificate for the limited series production even as it is undergoing state joint trials, Director of the MiG-29M and MiG-35 Aircraft Programs Directorate at the MiG Aircraft Corporation, Musheg Baloyan was quoted as  saying by TASS on Thursday.

"The MiG-35 is at the stage of state joint trials and a preliminary certificate has been obtained for launching the production of a pilot batch of the aircraft. The flight personnel are fond of the plane, which is easy to operate and that helps a lot.

There are issues that do arise in the process of the aircraft’s operation and we are promptly ironing them out together with our customer [the Russian Defense Ministry]," Baloyan said.

The MiG-35 is positioned as a light multirole fighter to compete with the likes of the Dassault Rafale. Among other improvements over the MiG-29M, it has 25% more thrust, an advanced radar, improved  fire control system and better sensors  to detect enemy targets. The MiG-35 has several improvements  over the current crop of  Russian jets  to make the job of pilots easier such as landing in auto mode and G-force protection system.

It has  some major advances that make it comparable to the best of Western fighter jets- an AI-Powered Target Recognition System and an all-new Active Electronically Scanning Array (AESA) radar.