On 12 January the ANPK MiG (Aviation Scientific Industrial Complex "MiG") - commonly known as the Mikoyan design bureau - made the first public presentation of its fifth-generation fighter, the MFI (Multi-Functional Fighter) [Editor: also known as the 1.42]. The event took place at the aerodrome of Gromov's Flight Test and Research Institute, some 70 km south of Moscow. ANPK MIG general designer and general director Mikhail Korzhuyev briefed defense minister Igor Sergeyev, air force commander Anatoly Kornukhov and other high-ranking military leaders, as well as air force attaches of certain foreign countries on the progress with the development of Mikoyan's major programs.

The central part of the event in Zhukovsky was the roll-out of the MFI first prototype, the Blue 01. At first glance, the new MiG resembles the Eurofighter Typhoon. Both aircraft feature big canards placed above the big truncated delta wing and a highly-set cockpit with good all-round vision and two underfuselage air intakes below the wing. The MFI, however, is a generation ahead of the Eurofighter, mostly because of a more sophisticated aerodynamic layout and the powerplant of two fifth-generation Lulka-Saturn AL-41F engines.

According to MFI chief designer Yuri Vorotnikov, the gas temperature in the AL-41's hot section is 200 degree higher than that for its predecessor AL-31F in use on the Sukhoi Su-27. The new engine has a deflectable nozzle (moving in pitch and yaw planes). The powerplant of two Al-41F engines allows the MFI to maintain a supersonic cruise at Mach numbers 1.3-1.4. The AL-41F's relative weight (weight to thrust ratio) is 0.1 for operable prototypes, but in the future this figure will be reduced down to 0.09 with the help of installation of a fully-digital control system.

Vorotnikov said that the AL-41F's working cycle parameters are close to those for the Pratt & Whitney F-119 in use on the F-22 Raptor. An experimental AL-41F has been successfully tested in flight on a test-bed, a specially-modified MiG-25 fighter. The MFI chief designer added that performance tests performed on experimental examples of the AL-41F have showed that Lulka-Saturn has fully met all major requirements set in the specification to this new engine. Now Mikoyan and Lulka-Saturn are working on prolongation of its initial lifetime, currently at 300 hours, doing so in 25-hour and 50-hour increments.

According to Mikhail Korzhyev, the first flight of the Blue 01 is planned for the end of February. Unlike its predecessors, Korzhuyev is keen to make a commercial product out of the MFI, a product available on the international market. For that purpose he proposes to simplify the aircraft, so as to make it affordable. In particular, the MiG boss wants to install on a "simplified MFI" the avionics package developed for the MiG-29SMT tactical fighter.

Should this approach be supported by potential foreign customers, the export version of the MFI will be notably less expensive - although also less combat-capable - than it was required by the Soviet air force in the late 1980s. At the same time, Korzhuev's "new course" might save the whole project, which in the current form is considered far too expensive for the cash-starved Russian air force. Arguing with his opponents, the MiG boss says that in even the simplified form the MFI will still be a fifth-generation fighter, far superior to all known foreign aircraft in dogfight situations. In addition, the airplane will retain its supersonic cruise capability. Long-range air-to-air missiles, which the MFI carries in the internal fuselage bay, will also remain in place, making the aircraft a serious opponent in BVR (beyond visual range) engagements.

During the presentation of the new MIG, Korzhuev said that Mikoyan has managed to make the MFI a hard-to-detect object for the existing airborne radars working in centimetre wave bands. Covered by a special radio-wave absorbing coating, the aircraft will have an effective radar cross-section of merely 0.1 sq.m, some 50 times lower than older aircraft of its size, the Su-27 and F-15. However, in an effort to reduce the list-price of a series-built airframe (which could have been as much as $70m), as well as to prevent a leak of high technologies to other countries, export versions of the MFI will likely be deprived of such coatings.

Except for the MFI, Mikoyan also had on display in Zhukovsky a dozen other aircraft. Among these were an upgraded version of the Fulcrum, the MiG-29SMT. The demonstrator aircraft, Blue 917, has completed its first series of tests at MiG's flight test station. Soon this airplane will be ferried to a Russian air force test centre for evaluation. Meantime, a second MiG-29SMT demonstrator is nearing completion.

The avionics package developed and tested on the MiG-29SMT has been found very cost-effective by the Russian air force which has plans to modify several dozens of in-service MiG-29 fighters to the SMT standard. An interest in upgrading old-version airplanes has been expressed by other MiG-29 users, notably India and Malaysia.

Modernisation plans have also been drawn up for the MiG-31. Korzhuyev described the aircraft as "the world's only interceptor able to reliably detect and destroy low-flying cruise missiles". According to Mikoyan's analysis, if Iraqi air-defence system had MiG-31s, then only 10% of the Tomahawk missiles fired in the Desert Fox campaign would have hit their assigned targets.

Using the MiG-31 as a basic platform, Mikoyan has developed a new strike aircraft, the MiG-31BM. The first example of this model was on display in Zhukovsky on 12 January. According to Korzhuyev, the MiG-31BM can be used as a flying control post for a group of MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters during a ground strike mission with extensive anti-aircraft resistance. In such a mission the MiG-31BM would coordinate actions of other aircraft in the group, acting as a mini-AWACS and an illuminator of ground targets.

Among other aircraft on display in Zhukovsky there were upgraded versions of MiG-21 and MiG-23 fighters armed with modern guided weapons, including the long-range R-77 air-to-air missiles. Written off from the inventory of the Russian air force, these types continue to soldier on in many countries around the world. Approximately 1500 MiG-23s and 5000 MiG-21s continue in service. Two years ago, Mikoyan won a contract from India for the upgrade of over 100 MiG-21bis fighters into the MiG-21-93I variant, featuring the multi-mode Phazatron Kopyo radar. Now Mikoyan is working on a new upgraded variant of the long-serving MiG-21 carrying more modern radars. Finding the international market for MiG-21 and MiG-23 upgrade "very promising" Korzhuyev said that Mikoyan is ready to team up with certain foreign companies, including those from Israel, on joint projects for modernisation of the ageing MiG models.