NEW DELHI, February 07. /ITAR-TASS/. A MIG-29KUB fighter piloted by an Indian pilot has made the first-ever landing on the deck of the Indian aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, a spokesman for Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation told Itar-Tass Friday.
“The landing of a two-seat sea-based MIG-29K jet was accomplished successfully,” he said. “The second pilot was a Russian officer.”
INS Vikramaditya - the former Russian aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Gorshkov - arrived at the Indian Navy base of Karwar at the beginning of January. Under the terms of a package intergovernmental agreement signed in 2004 in New Delhi, Russia handed the hull of the ship to India for free on the condition that the Indian authorities would do the upgrading of the aircraft carrier at the Sevmash shipyard in the Arkhangelsk region and would fit it out with an aircraft detachment of Russian manufacture.
Upon the completion of the ship’s technological overhaul, its water displacement totals 45,000 tons and the length reaches 283.5 meters, while the maximum while the maximum width is 59.8 meters.
The upgraded Vikramaditya has an up-to-date flight deck, a ramp for assisting the takeoffs, navigational and radar systems, as well as other specialized equipment and aggregates.
The ship has a capacity to carry 30 aircraft, including the MIG-29K fighters and Ka-27/Ka-31 helicopters.