The Russian built Mig-29 Fulcrum entered in service during the 80’s, and was developed to face the new fighters that were begining to serve within NATO (F-16, F-15, F-14 and F/A-18).
The Mig-29 was very agile (in spite of lacking fly by wire), had a powerful doppler radar, and a helmet mounted sight that allowed of boresight shots with its short range R-73 missiles, which made it a lethal oponent in a dogfight. Beyond visual range combat was possible thanks to the medium range IR and Radar R-27 missiles. The main limitation for the Mig-29 was its range, which limited considerably its combat efectivenes. Mig-29 fighter were sold around the world, mainly in thise countries that were “close” to the URSS, or Russia nowadays. A few old members of the Vasobian Pact that now are part of NATO have flown Mig-29 for a number of years, and Polony is one of them. Is spite of having bought a good number of advanced F-16C Block 52+ fighters from USA, the Polish Air Force decided to keep the Mig-29s asair defence fighter for the years to come.
Polish Air Force in one of the few that still have a solo display team with its Mig-29A Fulcrum, and photos and videos inlcuded here show the beauty and power of this “old enemy”.
Photos (By Edilia Luis):
