Unbuilt FULCRUMs

There has been a lot of speculation on unbuilt MiG-29 variants over the years. I’d like to offer a little bit of an explanation. Most of this info comes from Yefim Gordon’s superb MiG-29 work of a few years back. This book’s accuracy jumped by leaps and bounds in my eyes a while ago when a MiG-29 FULCRUM-C in North Korean service was spotted off the wing of a USAF RC-135. Gordon had claimed for a while that the DPRKAF was in posession of at least two of the aircraft, so the other data in the book took on a new aspect of accuracy, if you will.

Anyway, on to the aircraft.

9.12-MiG-29-standard production aircraft
9.12A-MiG-29-export version of 9.12, downgraded
9.12B-MiG-29-alternate export version, even more downgraded
9.12S-MiG-29S-adds R-77 capability
9.12SD-MiG-29SD-export version of 9.12S, also called MiG-29N (Malaysia)
9.13-MiG-29-Gorbatov, the fatback FULCRUM-C
9.13S-MiG-29S-adds R-77 capability
9.13SE-MiG-29SE-export 9.13S
9.14-FULCRUM-C version with enhanced A/G capability, test only
9.15-MiG-29M-redesigned multi-role aircraft
9.16-N-010 radar testbed
9.17-MiG-29SMT-3 stage upgrade
9.17K-naval variant of MiG-29SMT
9.21-digital avionics testbed
9.25-3 stage upgrade (MiG-29M1, M2, M3) of the 9.15
9.31-MiG-29K-naval variant
9.35-modernized 9.25 proposal
9.35 trainer-trainer version of 9.35
9.51-MiG-29UB-standard two-seat trainer
9.52-MiG-29UBT-enhanced, multi-role twin seater
9.62-MiG-29KU-trainer version of 9.31 with stepped cockpits
MiG-29SM-multi-role project
MiG-29KVP-trials aircraft for MiG-29K program
MiG-29MF-multi-role aircraft proposed to the Philippines
MiG-29ME/MiG-33-export 9.15
MiG-29UBM-9.15 series equivalent to the 9.51
MiG-29Sh-ground-attack project
MiG-29SMT Stage II-proposal to incorporate 9.35 technology into the 9.17

More variants to be added later.

Interesting things I have discovered:

-The 9.25 featured canards, while the 9.35 (sometimes referred to as the MiG-35, which is NOT apaprently a Mikoyan designation, only a press fabrication) actually did not.
-The 9.35 had a wing profile similar to that of the MiG-25.