RSK MiG has selected subcontractors to support its contract to upgrade Slovakian air force MiG-29s.
Rockwell Collins will supply tactical navigation and communications equipment, BAE Systems the identification friend-or-foe system, Goodrich the lighting systems and radio beacons and Smiths a range of other equipment.
The upgrade is aimed at extending the operational life of the fighters and making them NATO-compatible.
The contract, worth “several dozens of million dollars”, covers work on one squadron of MiG-29s, says Vladimir Barkovsky, head of the Mikoyan Engineering Centre.
The Western subcontractors’ workshare is 10%. The first fully upgraded and modernised MiG-29 will be delivered by the end of this year and the whole contract fulfilled by the end of next year.
Barkovsky says the N-019 Topaz radar will remain “almost unchanged”, but the aircraft’s air-to-air and air-to-ground abilities will be improved through changes to its navigation and targeting system.
This work has been outsourced to Russian Avionics, a business unit of NPK Irkut, Barkovsky says.
Russian companies are supplying the digital processors, solid-state flight recorders and multifunction cockpit displays. The Western and Russian avionics will exchange data via a 1553B databus. The upgraded aircraft will feature an English-language/imperial-measurement glass cockpit on 150 x 200mm (6 x 8in) LCD displays.
Development, system integration and testing will be done in Russia, while installation of the new systems and life extension work will be performed at three customer repair stations in Slovakia.
Source: Flight International
