With its extremely high speed and incredible agility, the MiG-29 became a "nightmare" for the enemy's top fighters.
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The MiG-29 is a 4th generation light fighter aircraft manufactured by the Mikoyan design bureau and first entered service in 1982. |
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The MiG-29 has several versions for the Air Force and Navy. |
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The MiG-29 and Su-27 form a "twin pair" of the Russian Air Force that no enemy fighter wants to confront. |
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The MiG-29 is a single-seat fighter jet with a length of 17.37m, a span of 11.4m and a height of 4.37m. |
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The Klimov RD-33 jet engine helps the MiG-29 fighter reach a speed of Mach 2.25 (equivalent to 2,400 km/h). |
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The MiG-29 has a range of 2,100km and a maximum ceiling of 18km. |
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The MiG-29 can carry 3.5 tons of weapons distributed on 7 different hardpoints, including 6 hardpoints under the 2 wings of the aircraft and 1 hardpoint under the fighter's fuselage. |
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To destroy ground and air targets, the MiG-29 is equipped with Kh25 and Kh29 air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles and S-8 and S-24 rockets.... |
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... as well as conventional bombs such as FAB-250, FAB 500-M62... |
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.... and 30mm GSh-30-1 cannon. |
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The R-60, R-27 and R-73 semi-active/infrared radar systems or the R-77 active radar system help the MiG-29 easily detect and approach targets from a distance. |
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The MiG-29 is especially fearsome because of its ability to fly like a “Cobra” in the air, launching missiles from very narrow angles… creating a significant advantage over the enemy. |
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However, the MiG-29 also has the "Achilles heel" of limited fuel tanks while being unable to refuel in the air. |
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This limited the MiG-29's range. Therefore, the MiG-29 was only used for missions within a narrow range. |
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The MiG-29 was also used by the Russian Air Force in air strikes against IS in Syria with great success. |
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The MiG-29's main mission is to support Russian attack aircraft attacking IS targets on the ground. |
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The MiG-29's fearsome close combat capabilities help the Russian Air Force establish "safe flight corridors" in Syria. |
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In addition, the MiG-29's flexible flight capabilities make this fighter plane a regular presence in flight demonstrations at major military fairs around the world. |
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As of 2012, the Russian Air Force possessed 270 MiG-29s, while the Russian Navy had 40 in service. |
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In total, more than 1,600 MiG-29s were produced by Russia over 29 years, of which nearly 1,000 were exported to about 30 countries. |
According to VOV