Navy’s MiG-29K Aircraft Crashes Off Goa During Training, Pilot Safe

An Indian Navy aircraft – MiG-29K – on a routine training sortie crashed near Goa this morning. The pilot of the aircraft managed to eject safely.

A probe has been ordered into the incident, according to an official statement.

“Today morning at around 1030h a Mig 29k aircraft on a routine training sortie crashed off Goa. The pilot of the aircraft ejected safely and has been recovered. An enquiry to investigate the incident has been ordered (sic),” Indian Navy tweeted this afternoon.The aircraft took off from the INS Hansa base at Vasco in Goa, news agency PTI reported. 

In a similar incident, another MiG-29K fighter jet belonging to the Indian Navy crashed shortly after it took off on a routine training mission from Goa’s Dabolim last year in November.

The pilots – Captain M Sheokhand and Lieutenant Commander Deepak Yadav – had also managed to eject safely. According to a statement by the Navy, the plane, a trainer version of the fighter, was hit by a flock of birds and the collision led to a fire in the right engine and the left engine failing.

The pilots showed commendable presence of mind, the statement added, in steering the damaged jet away from populated areas; the plane crashed in open land and neither casualties nor damage was reported.

Earlier, in June, a mishap involving a MiG-29K jet led to Goa airport operations being suspended for 90 minutes.

The naval fighter jet’s external fuel tank was inadvertently jettisoned during take off and caused a fire on the runway. Fighter jets often carry fuel tanks that can be detached as per mission requirements.

The Goa airport is used for both civilian and military aircraft.

https://www.janes.com/article/94404/pakistan-test-launches-longer-range-variant-of-ra-ad-ii-alcm

Pakistan test-launches longer-range variant of Ra’ad II ALCM

Pakistan announced on 18 February that it has test-launched a new variant of its Ra’ad II nuclear-capable, air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) with a range of 600 km.

In a statement, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistani military, said that the 600 km range of the new missile “significantly enhances” the PAF’s “air-delivered strategic stand-off capability on land and at sea”.

The new missile variant, which was shown in a low-resolution video being launched from a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Mirage III fighter aircraft, “is equipped with state-of-the-art guidance and navigation systems ensuring engagement of targets with high precision”, said the ISPR, referring to the weapon system as “a major step towards complementing Pakistan’s deterrence capability”.

No further details were provided about the latest Ra’ad II variant, which has been fitted with what appears to be a more conventional tail fin configuration compared to the ‘twin tail’ configuration seen in previous variants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNsbrmWmPEE

Not quite…call signs are just that, call signs. They can be assigned to any aircraft. Simply circling a photo of a couple of MKIs doesn’t prove one wasn’t shot down.

The fact that the ndians claim their MKIs had to “dodge” AMRAAMS and the farcical public demo of the AMRAAM wreckage suggests that there is a higher chance of an MKI being damaged at least, if not a bona fide kill. The fact that “Abhi” never managed to get off a missile from his Mig-21 shows the indian claim of him shooting down a Viper is as flat as Abhi’s destroyed Mig-21. I’m not saying the PAF managed to definitely kill an MKI, just that the facts imply a higher probability of an MKI being damaged, than a Viper being killed. Till this day, Abhi has never claimed to have shot down a Viper, let alone get a missile off, and how come he hasn’t been allowed to talk publicly? Not to mention the fact that the indian failed strike has been independently debunked by a number sources.

PAF event describing the events of Operation Swift Retort on 27 February, including video feed from the H-4 stand off weapon used to attack the Indian army depot, along with details of the Mig-21 shot down by an AMRAAM from a PAF Viper.

Details about the airstrike at 4:10

The two AESA radars in contention for the upcoming Block 3 version of the JF-17. Other improvements reported in the block 3 version include RAM coating, additional hardpoints (including chin hardpoint for LDP), single large MFD, HMCS, and voice activated controls.

The LKF601E from AVIC, with some impressive specs for an air-cooled radar.

The NRIET KLJ-7A, with similar specs, but of particular interest is the option to include side arrays to improve all round coverage.

Pics and video from the PAF/PLAF Shaheen VIII 2019 exercise in China. From the PLAF side, multiple versions of the Flanker were used, including J-16 and Su-30MKK, along with J-10C and airborne electronic AWAC and other assets. Of particular note is the use of ground based SAM systems and their radars, including what looks like S-300/400 series.

Video highlights of AE 2019, PAF JF-17s appear at 2:15 and 8:00