Sevmash announced on 9 June that the MiG-29K was brought on board Vikramaditya (ex-Admiral Gorshkov) to trial flight-deck hardware, in particular the restraints that aredesigned to hold an aircraft in place until its engines generatesufficient thrust for take-off.
The yard's head of production for military-technical co-operation,Sergey Novoselov, said that successful testing of the restraints was acondition for the next contractual payment for the carrier refit.
Jane's understands that the test aircraft is a MiG-29Kprototype built in the late 1980s and used to demonstrate arrestedlandings and 'ski-jump' take-offs with the Kuznetsov-class carriersthen under construction for the Soviet Navy.
