Photo courtesy of Russian Aircraft Corp.
Russia’s Rostec and the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defence is set to co-develop a fifth-generation light combat fighter, Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov said at IDEX in Abu Dhabi, according to news reports. This effort would start in 2018 and could take about eight years.
Development would reportedly be based on Rostec’s MiG-29 twin-engine fighter aircraft. However, details have not been entirely parsed out. This fifth-generation fighter would compete with Lockheed Martin’s F-35 and other aircraft in various stages of development like Turkish Aerospace Industries’ TFX and Korea Aerospace Industries’ KFX.
More than 1,600 MiG-29 light fighters are operated around the world. The family includes the MiG-29, MiG-29UB, MiG-29SE, MiG-29SD, MiG-29SM and the upgraded MiG-29SMT.