GarryB Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:48 am
It is actually very smart. The MiG-29M2 family of aircraft are fully multirole, but they are not leading edge super state of the art... and therefore rather expensive...
They share the same airframe as the MIG-35 so any new stuff they develop for the MiG-35 they can put into these aircraft.
If they are using these aircraft as their low fighters, it means they can be cheaper to buy with lower operating costs compared with the Flankers which are larger aircraft, and any upgrades over time can be added to improve performance as it becomes more affordable or proven in service in other air forces.
In the mean time it can fly as fast as a Flanker and compared with a standard Su-27SM3 type aircraft it has four inner wing pylons for heavy missiles and four outer pylons for lighter missiles... so it carries four R-27s or R-77 and four R-73s or R-74s compared with the Flanker which traditionally carries six R-27s or six R-77s and six R-73s or six R-74s... so the difference in normal air to air payload is not that huge most of the time.
Most of the roles most fighters perform it wont be carrying anything like those sorts of loads....
The airframe for the MiG-29M2 and MiG-29KR and MiG-35 are the same, so they could gradually upgrade the aircraft to 35 standard if they want, though some of the systems and features or capabilities of the 35 might not be needed with them having plenty of larger aircraft too, so a partial upgrade would make financial sense too.
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