Remember when India’s MiG-21s, working with Su-30s, gave our front-line F-15 fighters all they could handle in the 2004 Cope India? That was a clear indictment of Beltway analysts who claim USAF doesn’t need the F/A-22 because it is so far ahead of the competition. Next time, IAF pilots could be flying MiG-35s as well. According to the Press Trust of India, Moscow has offered India its newer MiG-35 multirole fighter to replace its older airframes.
With the Air Force in the midst of its biggest testing boom in decades, the Maintenance Operational Test (MxOT) Division at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is making sure those tests include an often-overlooked perspective: that of maintainers.