MiG Boss Bids for New Fighter Business
But he would not acknowledge new MiG-29 order from Egypt.
A MiG-35 prototype heads skywards. The company is hoping for a Russian order for approximately 40. (Photo: Vladimir Karnozov)

RAC MiG chief executive officer Ilya Tarasenko gave a rare interview to Moscow newspaper Kommersant in which he described a good financial year in 2016, but said that the company needs new orders for the MiG-29/35 series. However, he did not acknowledge a recent order for approximately 50 MiG-29M2s from Egypt, one of which was seen flying from the company’s main factory and airfield at Lukhovitsky airfield two months ago.

Tarasenko confirmed that the company completed deliveries of MiG-29K/KUB carrier-borne fighters under both Russian (24 aircraft) and Indian (45 aircraft) contracts, and has no more orders for the navalized Fulcrum. He also confirmed completion of MiG-29SMT multirole fighter deliveries to the Russian air force (under the 2014 contract for 14 SMTs and two UBT twin-seat operational trainers). The deliveries allowed MiG to declare a healthy profit in 2016, compared to losses or barely break-even results in previous years.  

The company has built some 45,000 MiGs, of which 11,000 have been exported. The workforce numbers “about ten thousand” after last year’s absorbing of the Sokol plant in Nizhny Novgorod, which has produced MiGs since 1960s but was not in the corporate structure until recently. But this newly released figure indicates that significant job cuts have been made in the past few years. While not mentioning this fact, Tarasenko praised himself on the success of the restructuring process that he launched in 2009 when he joined the company after an initial career at Sukhoi.

With no new orders for MiGs from the Russian Ministry of Defence, the company has had to launch production of the Ilyushin Il-114 regional airliner at Lukhovitsy. It plans to assemble 300 of the 64-seat turboprops, with first delivery expected in 2021. This program is heavily subsidized by the Russian government.

“Every air force needs a light-and-medium airplane in the class of MiG-29M/M2 and MiG-35,” Tarasenko stated. He specifically mentioned Kazakhstan and India among 56 previous customers for MiGs with whom the company is actively negotiating possible replacements. One key selling point, he declared, is a 25 percent lower operational cost for new MiGs compared with unidentified “foreign competitors.”

MiG’s biggest hope is to clinch a Russian air force order for approximately 40 MiG-35s as part of the State Armament Procurement Program 2025, which is being finalized. Another prospect stems from an agreement between Russia and the UAE that was signed at the IDEX’2017 show. The two countries declared an intent to jointly develop a light multimission fifth-generation combat jet. Besides, MiG is developing plans for a new long-range interceptor that could replace the MiG-31.