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Indian Navy Replaces Venerable Sea Harriers with Russian-made MiG-29K fighters

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Naval Forces News - India
 
 
 
Indian Navy Replaces Venerable Sea Harriers with Russian-made MiG-29K fighters
 
The Indian Navy has replaced all of its venerable British-made Sea Harrier carrierborne fighters with Russian-built Mikoyan MiG-29Ks (NATO reporting name: Fulcrum-D) in a ceremony at Indian Naval Station Hansa in Goa state on the southwest coast of India, according to the Indian Navy’s press office.
     
The Indian Navy has replaced all of its venerable British-made Sea Harrier carrierborne fighters with Russian-built Mikoyan MiG-29Ks (NATO reporting name: Fulcrum-D) in a ceremony at Indian Naval Station Hansa in Goa state on the southwest coast of India, according to the Indian Navy’s press office.
 The outgoing Sea Harriers being flanked by the newly inducted MiG 29Ks fighters of the Indian Navy. Picture: Indian Navy
     
"We have great pride in inducting supersonic multi-role MiG 29K aircraft with cutting edge technology into the 300 squadron," Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R K Dhowan said. "The excellent aircraft has already been integrated on board aircraft carrier Vikramaditya and will now perform the role of strike fighter and air defense for the fleet in the Indian Navy."

He emphasized that owing to the ongoing updating of the service’s materiel "the Indian Navy… is ready to take on any challenge in the maritime domain of the Indian Ocean region in the 21st century." According to the admiral, the Indian Navy has fielded as many as 31 out of 45 Russian-made MiG-29Ks fighters under two contracts. "We have our new aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, which is being constructed at Kochi shipyard [in Kerala state] and it is scheduled for delivery in the end of 2018", the chief of the Naval Staff said.

The decommissioning of the Sea Harriers is due to the retirement in June this year of the Viraat aircraft carrier, on which they have been based.

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