Indian Navy upgrades MiG-29K with PGMs
- Aero India 2025 put an Indian Navy MiG-29K on static display with new strike weapons, showing the carrier fighter’s expanding precision-attack loadout. - Photos and reporting identified DRDO’s NASM-MR and RudraM-II alongside claims of Israeli Rampage integration, pointing to a broader weapons refresh. - The shift keeps MiG-29Ks relevant on INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya as India waits for Rafale M and TEDBF. (navalnews.com)
A carrier fighter is only as useful as the weapons it can launch, and India’s MiG-29K is getting a broader set of guided munitions. Aero India 2025 offered the clearest public look yet. (newindianexpress.com) (pib.gov.in) The Indian Navy displayed a MiG-29K at Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bengaluru in February 2025. Press Information Bureau material for the show listed the MiG-29K among the naval aircraft on display. (pib.gov.in) (newindianexpress.com) Open-source photos from the event showed one MiG-29K with DRDO’s Naval Anti-Ship Missile-Medium Range, or NASM-MR, presented as part of the aircraft’s future strike package. Separate photos identified a RudraM-II missile on a dolly beside the jet. (idrw.org) (planespotters.net) (jetphotos.com) Precision-guided munitions are weapons that steer themselves after launch, using seekers, satellite navigation, or both, instead of falling ballistically like unguided bombs. For a carrier air wing, that means striking ships or land targets from farther away and with fewer aircraft. (armyrecognition.com) (wikipedia.org) That matters for India because the MiG-29K remains the Navy’s main fixed-wing fighter on both INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant. The Navy is still years away from fielding its planned Twin Engine Deck-Based Fighter, and India signed for 26 Rafale Marine jets only in April 2025. (pib.gov.in) (idrw.org) (navalnews.com) India’s MiG-29K fleet was bought in two batches: 16 aircraft under a 2004 deal and 29 more under a 2010 option contract, for a total of 45. Those jets now have to cover carrier operations while newer naval fighters are still in procurement or development. (wikipedia.org) (domain-b.com) The clearest indigenous program is NASM-MR, an anti-ship missile DRDO has been developing for naval aviation. Reporting in January 2026 said the missile’s electrical and mechanical interfaces on the MiG-29K had been validated ahead of developmental flight trials. (indianmasterminds.com) (defence.newsd.in) Other reported additions are less official but widely discussed in defense coverage around Aero India 2025. Those reports say the Navy is also tying in Israeli Rampage strike missiles and Indian weapons such as RudraM-series anti-radiation missiles, though public confirmation remains thinner than for the display itself. (armyrecognition.com) (thedefensenews.com) The result is less an airframe rebuild than a weapons and mission-systems update. India is using the MiG-29K it already has, on the carriers it already sails, while it waits for the next generation of deck fighters to arrive. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) (navalnews.com)
