NEW DELHI, India -- India displayed a squadron of brand-new Soviet MiG-29 jet fighters Sunday, showing off part of a group of jets intended to counter U.S.-made F-16's possessed by Pakistan, the Press Trust of India said.
'In making available this splendid aircraft, the U.S.S.R. has once again demonstrated its friendship and goodwill for this country,' Defense Minister K.C. Pant said as 11 jets performed acrobatic stunts at Pune airbase, 720 miles south of New Delhi.
The Soviet Union is India's main arms supplier and has not provided the MiG-29 to any Warsaw Pact nation, nor displayed its frontline jet at the Paris and Farnborough air shows.
The Press Trust said the twin-engine aircraft flew unarmed because officials wished to keep their weapons secret, but analysts say a MiG-29 has air-to-air missiles with an 18-mile range and can carry nuclear weapons.
The Press Trust said the jet is equipped with a sophisticated all-weather 'look-up shoot-down' radar system, can fly at more than twice the speed of sound and has a range of some 560 miles.
India is reported to have assembled 50 fighters comprising two squadrons since the MiG-29 deal was sealed during a November 1986 visit to India by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
'We have a duty to maintain our defense in a state of preparedness at all times,' Pant said, adding that 'we have to respond adequately' to 'advanced weapons, aircraft and equipment provided to a neighboring country on a very large scale.'
Pant's statement was a direct reference to Pakistan, India's enemy in three wars since 1948 and the recipient of large amounts of U.S. military equipment as part of Washington's policy of bolstering Islamabad against Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
New Delhi has said that Islamabad has deployed much of the U.S.-supplied hardware along their mutual border, and accuses Washington of fueling an arms race on the subcontinent.
Defense analysts say India decided it needed the MiG-29 to counter U.S. F-16 'Falcons' flown by the Pakistan Air Force and the Press Trust reported the MiG-29s have greater thrust and maneuverability.
