19FortyFive: Russia's MiG-35 Fighter Jet Is A Disaster

• 8.12.2025, 12:36

No one wants to buy these airplanes.

Russia's Generation 4++ MiG-35 fighter is a disaster, says a columnist for the U.S. magazine 19FortyFive Brent Eastwood.

The author writes that the MiG-35 was supposed to be Russia's Generation 4++ answer to Western F-16, F-15EX and even stealth fighters, but instead "has been left in limbo due to sanctions, low fuel efficiency, unsatisfactory sensors and uncertainty in its mission objectives."

"Fewer than a dozen aircraft are believed to be in active service, production volumes have been reduced and exports are virtually nonexistent as countries such as Egypt and India look elsewhere," the publication said.

Istwood writes that the MiG-35 is a bridge of sorts between generations of combat aircraft, but foreign buyers are still not impressed with it.