Most of the air forces of the Warsaw Pact countries have managed to become very closely acquainted with the unique flight and technical, and therefore the fighting qualities of the advanced twin-engine fighters of the 4th generation MiG-29A ("Product 9-12B"), which began to enter service 1st Squadron of the Warsaw Fighter Aviation Regiment at the end of July 1989. Even despite the fact that the vehicles were equipped with a simplified export modification of the SUV-29E armament control system, which has limitations in the range of the Sapfir-29 N019 radar (about 55 km on a target with an RCS of 3 m2 to the front hemisphere and 30 km to the rear hemisphere), as well as medium-range air combat missiles R-27R1 / T2 with low range characteristics, the original bearing aerodynamic design of the airframe made it possible to win close air combat against any Western European and US fighter (from Mirage-2000C / -5 to F-16A). In particular, the angular velocity of the steady pitch turn for the MiG-29A is about 23.5 deg / s, which is comparable only to the newest multirole fighter "Rafale".
"Falcrum" remained in service with the Polish Air Force even though on September 15, 2006, the most Russophobic country in Eastern Europe began to take in combat units one of the most modern tactical fighters - F-16C / D Block 52, which later received the "+", and this already says a lot. Indeed, firstly, the MiG-29A in close air combat ("dog dump") to this day can compete with both "Raphael" and "Typhoon"; secondly, they have a unique modernization reserve in terms of on-board radio-electronic equipment, which the Poles intend to implement in hardware in the near future. For example, the Polish source militarium.net, citing various state resources, reports that Warsaw is thinking about implementing the 3rd stage of improving the Soviet MiGs.
The first two stages included the installation on 26 MiG-29A and 6 MiG-29UB of a new on-board computer of Israeli design, the MIL-STD-1553B data exchange bus standard for modern fighters (provides for an open avionics architecture), modern wide-format multifunctional indicators, advanced modules of the GPS radio navigation system, as well as an additional hardware element base for a full-fledged unification of rocket armament on suspensions with a weapons control complex (KUV). The last point makes it possible to carry out pre-flight testing of guided air combat missiles directly on the harnesses. Also, the vehicles were equipped with compact high-resolution cameras for the classification and identification of intercepted air objects during close air combat, which absolutely did not allow determining the type of air target during the battle outside the visual range. This upgrade package, according to experts from the Polish Defense Ministry, has extended the operational life of the fighter until 2025. At the same time, the "ancient" onboard radar sighting system N019 "Sapphire-29" is unified exclusively with the outdated R-27R1 air-to-air missiles equipped with semi-active radar homing heads (PARGSN), as well as R-27T1 with single-band infrared homing heads.
The third stage should become the crown of the engineering thought of the Polish aircraft repair company Wojskowe Zaklady Lotnicze. It provides for the installation on the improved "Products 9-12B" of more advanced multi-mode airborne radars of the AN / APG-68 family of version (V) 9, as well as unification with the AIM-120C-5/7 medium-range air combat missiles and AIM-close air combat. 9X Block II "Sidewinder". Due to this stage of updating, the Poles plan to establish parity with our MiG-35s, which are to be sent to combat units from 2018, as well as with the Su-30SM, which are actively being adopted by the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy. But let's look at this perspective more objectively. Even if the WZL-2 specialists, with the help of the Northrop Grumman employees, will manage to "shove" a rather large (0.48 x 0.72 m) oval antenna array of the AN / APG-68 (V) radar 9 into the MiG-29A radio-transparent fairing, designed for the 700-mm N019 Sapfir-29 radar, they will hardly succeed in gaining a confident superiority over the promising MiG-35S and Su-30SM.
Firstly, AN / APG-68 (V) 9 is capable of detecting a target with an RCS of 2 m2 at a distance of no more than 90 km, while the Zhuk-AE and N011M Bars radars installed on the MiG-35 and Su-30SM Will track the Pole at a distance of 140 - 170 km. In fact, Russian pilots will be able to "capture" Polish MiG-29As for precise auto-tracking at twice the distance. Moreover, ours will have an advantage in terms of noise immunity, bandwidth, as well as target channeling, since the above radars are built on the basis of active phased array ("Zhuk-AE") and passive phased array "Bars" (8 and 4 fired targets, respectively. -second, when operating in passive mode, our MiG-35 will receive undeniable advantages provided by the presence of an attacking missile detection station, represented by high-resolution sensors of the upper hemisphere (VS-OAR) and the lower hemisphere (NS-OAR). These optoelectronic modules can detect silhouette of SAM type MIM-104C / ERINT at a distance of 30-40 km and AIM-120C - 25-30 km.
Also, in addition to the OLS-UEM bow optical-electronic sighting system, the MiG-35 has a similar OLS-K lower hemisphere turret view module, designed to work mainly on ground targets (tank-type targets - 20-30 km, OTRK launchers - 40 -50 km, destroyer - 65-80 km) in television and infrared channels with the possibility of laser target designation. For this, the Polish "WZL-2" will need to be suspended from the "Falkrum" glider, which has been fairly "battered" over the years, separate container OLPKs of the "Sniper-ATP" type, etc., which will make the vehicle heavier, increase the load on the wing and prevent maneuverable close combat … Moreover, the modification of the MiG-35 for the Russian Aerospace Forces can receive a turbojet engine with a deflected thrust vector RD-33MK2, which will turn the transitional generation Falkrum into a super-maneuverable air fighter, similar to the Su-30SM and Su-35S. In this case, the Poles are completely eliminated from the game.
