Why was the mig 29 made?

In the late 1960s the Soviet air force learned that the United States was developing the F-15, a large air-superiority fighter with a powerful radar and a thrust-to-weight ratio above one. The existing MiG-21 and MiG-23 could not match it. The PFI (advanced frontal fighter) requirement of 1969-1971 asked for an aircraft of similar performance and, as in the United States, the programme soon split into a heavy and a light type. Sukhoi took the heavy long-range fighter that became the Su-27; Mikoyan received the lighter, cheaper aircraft meant to be built in far larger numbers.

The MiG-29 was designed to operate with the army, from damaged or unpaved strips close to the fighting. That explains several choices: sturdy landing gear, auxiliary intakes on top of the wing roots with doors that seal the main intakes on the ground to keep debris out of the RD-33 engines, and short-range weapons such as the R-73 missile cued by a helmet-mounted sight. Its N019 radar and infrared search-and-track sensor let it engage without emitting, and the blended wing-body with twin fins gave it exceptional low-speed manoeuvrability. Range and avionics growth were sacrificed for these qualities.

The first prototype flew on 6 October 1977 and regiments began receiving the aircraft in 1983. Western observers who saw it in the 1980s were impressed by its agility, a judgement confirmed when unified Germany flew ex-East German examples alongside NATO fighters. Exports to India, Iraq, Syria, Yugoslavia, Poland and others followed, and later versions, the MiG-29M, the carrier-based MiG-29K and the MiG-35, extended the design. More than 1,600 have been built.