MiG-29 (Fulcrum) | Why failed?

We are investigating the MiG-29, the Soviet answer to the F-16 Fighting Falcon. #mig29 #fulcrum #aviaition

Which events paved the way for the creation of the MiG-29?
Which systems of the MiG-29 were archaic even in the 1980s?
Why did the U.S.S.R. fit the Fulcrum with modern avionics, a fly-by-wire flight control system, and hands-on-throttle-and-stick controls?
Why has the MiG-29 never been a proper rival for the F-16?

00:00 Introduction
00:51 Historical background
01:45 Programme history
02:42 Design
04:44 Main variants (MiG-29S / MiG-29M / MiG-29SM / MiG-29SMT / MiG-29K /
07:32 Specifications
09:11 MiG-29 in action
10:49 Analysis

Welcome to our channel. All the weapon systems are like books, and they tell us their stories. The Weapon Detective investigates these books, reads between the lines, analyses, and tells the untold. At the dawn of the Second Cold War, the fruits of new projects give us clues about the future. But current weapon systems also have their own stories. In our videos, you can find technical information, historical backgrounds, what happened during the development processes, combat experience and political projection. While the Second Cold War is rising, Let's investigate the weapons together.

Music: Авиамарш - Soviet Air Force March

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[WeaponDetective]

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[TimothyOakes]

Failed? It's not the best but I definitely wouldn't call it a failure.

[curiouscaesar]

With its Helmet mounted cueing and R73 missile, West was instructing it's pilots to not engage Mig29 in close combat

[thefrecklepuny]

I have read that the Soviets really wanted something multirole like the F-16 from the start but were stuck with the air-to-air oriented MiG-29 until it became more multirole later in its own career.

[sameerthakur]

Why did it fail in export sales?

The Flanker series:
Similar design.
Similar agility.
Much larger payload capability.
Designed as a multi-role fighter from the start.
Somewhat higher price, but much bigger bang for the buck.

[draxosplace]

Regardless of what it’s been said, the MIG 29 with a well trained pilot is still a serious threat in air to air combat.

[Tankliker]

Tbh, the way described the plane it sounds more like a thing many Soviet vehicles have.

The Soviet Union is now just a part of history, while the western counterparts and companies that develop and produce them are still existent and also a still producing new vehicles.

Overall the MiG 29 seems to be up to the task when it was first used, but since nobody provided any upgrades to it it simply now is dated up to obsolete.

[tinymonster]

I think the aircraft is a wonderful-looking piece of aviation art.

[Leptospirosi]

I disagree about the potential of the plane. What doomed it in Syria, Iraq, Ex Yugoslavia and Ukraine was poor logistics and lack of AWACS systems, where the opponents had plenty: modern fighters rarely intercept their targets on their own means, because the radar signature gives them away, cancelling the surprise factor. If your opponent can see you coming, an active missile just needs a quick lock to go its way, but if you are actively searching, working on a radar which is not great, they would see you coming before you do. The R73 is an outstanding missile: in 1990, acquiring samples for the Luftwaffe sent shiver to the western world, to the point that Luftwaffe, Italy and Spain dropped out of the ASRAM program deeming it 'inadequate' bringing to the Iris-T. The Mig 29 could exploit the R73 very well thanks to the IR sensor ahead of the windscreen, which the F16 never had. The R73 is also a superior weapon to the Aim9L that the F16 adopted as main weapon for most of its life.
The F16 radar was crap for years and the plane was never able to replace air superiority fighters until the late nineties because it could not guide the AIM 7 sparrow.
Even with the AIM 120 things would not be great, but the Airborne radar systems available to NATO, which would guide the planes in the area to the target was able to mitigate these shortcomings. This is why modern radar put much more emphasis on stealthyness then they do on range and raw power.
What really killed the Mig 29 was maintenance: the turbofan produced in Russia are generally not as reliable as the western ones, produce less thrust to weight ratio, burn a lot of fuel and have drastically shortened lifespan. You buy a plane for cheap, but when you ask for engine spares, or worse, you need to completely replace them after a few hundreds flight hours, it become expensive. The lesson was learned by costumers on the Mig 21 and very few bought the Mig 23/27. The Mig 29 was a better plane, but customers burned by previous experiences only went to Russia if they couldn't get western jets, available in number on the used market after the end of the cold war. This reduced the incomes for Mikoyan that couldn't dedicate enough resources to keep iup to date the Mig 29, and develop new systems for it.
Russia's preference for the Su27 only made thing worse for Mikoyan which, currently is barely surviving as an aerospace company.

[dstavs]

Excellent video. I think the greatest weakness the MiG-29 had was it’s inadequately trained pilots and not necessarily the plane itself. That’s not to say they lacked skill. On the contrary, the MiG-29 pilots had to be some of the most competent in the world. However, compared to the US and it’s NATO allies, the pilots of the countries that flew the MiG-29 had far fewer flight ours and combat training. Modernized versions such as those flown by Poland and India are still formidable aircraft. For within visual range engagements, the MiG-29 has excellent angle of attack characteristics and nose authority comparable to the F-18 Hornet (legacy) and exceptional power to weight. Couple this with the HMD high off-boresight capabilities and the MIG-29 is deadly. If you added a modern AESA radar and the BVR R-77 missile, it would be deadly in BVR engagements as well.

[bhaveshpratapmall]

Mig - 29.. don't think it was a failure.. just look at the number of countries it was exported to and Helmet mounted display with its air to air missile was game changer and much ahead of its time... It's the Mig 35 which I would call the biggest failure

[ismailnyeyusof]

The Malaysian airforce bought a bunch of these and is currently keeping them in storage. Expensive to maintain and lack of spares.

[NorthKoreaUncovered]

It didn't fail, it just that whenever it came to combat, it had Arab pilots.


Ukraine if anything has shown what the MiG-29 can do. and no, I'm not talking about the Ghost of Kyiv myth.

[Kaigun]

I think part of the failure of the Mig-29s to gain many victories has to do with training of the pilots also, not just the aircraft itself.

[Rubashow]

It must have felt really strange as a 1969 American to life in that era and have stuff like the F-14 and F-15 presented to you. They were so futuristic. It must have looked like science fiction to you.

[Simplemente_Dyno]

I always liked the mig-29 more than the f-16, although I always recognized the problems that the mig 29 had, anyway it's still an airplane that seems pretty nice for me, I'd like to see a video about the Su-27 at some point, Anyway, thanks for the video, I really liked it, it's been a while since I've seen a video that talks about the plane from this perspective :P

[jenpsakiscousin]

I love these “why the xxx sucks” videos. The radar and short range was and probably still is it’s biggest problem but if the pilot can survive till the merge than it is a deadly weapon. As far as the airframe is concerned it is a work of art.

[commie]

My 2 cents
Mig-29 is an excellent fighter jet aerodynamically, but the electronic systems was not using modular designs, which make upgrade the plane a pain in the ass, and requires a huge amount of effort compare to those using modular designs. The result of this is with time passing on, the mig-29 was always behind in tech vs its opponent. The early version is su27 was facing the same issue(until su35), that's why PLA had too taken everything out and re-design all the electronic systems. Especially with the collapse of soviet union, mig29 stopped receiving upgrades.

Saying the soviet engineers incapable of innovate is not fair. They are genius in a lot of fields, it is the lack capital driven market economy causing them moving slower in electronics.

[nafis]

my country used MiG29N version. it has air to air refueling probe. I saw it in LIMA airshow, it turns very quickly and able to do that cobra, shooting up like a rocket. Now retired after we got SU30MKM.

[chandrachurniyogi]

recommend a video on the MIG-35B multi role interdictor strike fighter . . . it'll help understand the depth of two different variants based on the same airframe from two different generations . . .