{"id":1764,"date":"2014-01-24T13:08:30","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T13:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=1764"},"modified":"2026-03-31T22:38:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:38:44","slug":"german-luftwaffe-mig-29-fulcrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/german-luftwaffe-mig-29-fulcrum\/","title":{"rendered":"German Luftwaffe and the MiG-29 Fulcrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inherited Soviet Fighter Jet<\/h2>\n
\"EGLIN

MiG-29-Fulcrum-Farewell-USA-2003<\/p><\/div>\n

East Germany (DDR) bought 20 MiG-29A and 4 MiG-29UB two seaters just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, for the Luftstreitkr\u00e4fte der NVA (East German Air Force). They entered service in 1988 and 1989. After the German reunification in October 1990, these MiGs were integrated into the Luftwaffe, made NATO-compatible and stationed on Laage Fliegerhorst, with Luftwaffe Jagdgeschwader JG73 “Steinhoff”.<\/p>\n

Oberstleutnant Johannes Rudolf, German Tornado pilot and former L-39 Albatros pilot at MiGFlug, said about his experience in the MiG-29:<\/p>\n

The MiG-29 is a rocket. It is as simple as that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It soon turned out that claims that the MiG-29 was superior to Western fighter jets in certain areas proved correct – for example, the Helmet Mounted Weapons Sight (HMS) – a technology the US Air Force and Navy didn’t have operational before 2003 – or the dogfight capability and\u00a0manoeuvrability, especially at slow speed. The MiG-29 demonstrated it’s ability impressively during joint US-German dissimilar air combat training. But we’ll have a closer look at that below.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2003 22 MiG-29s were sold to the Polish Air Force for a symbolic 1 EUR per Fulcrum,\u00a014 were\u00a0taken into service with the 41. elt\u00a0after an\u00a0overhauled. Of the remaining two German MiGs, one had crashed after a pilot’s fault, and one (the 29+03) is on display at Laage-Rostock airport.<\/p>\n

MiG-29 strengths and\u00a0weaknesses<\/h2>\n
\"German-MiG-29A-Fulcrum\"

German-MiG-29A-Fulcrum<\/p><\/div>\n

During service with German Luftwaffe, Germany and its allies the possibility to compare the MiG-29 like never before. Luftwaffe pilots who flew western jets before suddenly had the possibility to fly the state of the art multirole fighter aircraft of the Eastern Block. That said, one must be aware that Germany inherited the export version\u00a0of the\u00a0<\/strong>earliest model MiG-29A, which was inferior to the Soviet MiG-29A, e.g. they are lacking the Lazlo data link and the SRO IFF transponders. And today’s latest MiG-29s are of course more advanced if not to say other aircraft, after several upgrades. A funny side note here: The NATO findings were an important source of improvement for Mikoyan OKB, to further improve the MiG-29.<\/p>\n

Strengths\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n