[Panther Al]

Back OT(ish), a lot of attention has been paid to the Su series, but what of the good old MiG29?

Sure, its a 4th gen fighter, and lately, the russian ones have had nothing but issues. But India still has more than a few, and like them well enough that they are getting more. The German Luftwaffe liked the ones they inherited, and the Poles still use them as well as a number of other countries.

I think that you can't count out the MiG29. The Indian ones are getting avionics and ECM from the Israeli's, who are also giving a hand to Poland with theirs. Romania actually asked the Israeli's to do a total upgrade from the rubber up on the MiG29's they had, but eventually for cost reasons backed off and upgraded the snot out of the MiG21. Even the Israeli Air Force took a long hard look at the 29 - They leased a number for use as aggressors and to evaluate them for the possibility of a no holds barred upgrade building on the prototype of the MiG29 Sniper for the Romanian Air Force - which makes sense as you can probably get a good price on the Airframes from former users, as well as I am sure if you presented cash to the russians they would be more than happy to sell as well (Hence the 5 privately owned flyable MiG29's in the USA), providing a second source of Aircraft, second sources being a very important thing for the Israeli Military.