Russian MiG pilots will soon get indigenous helmet-mounted target acquisition and display systems. Currently, the Russian Air Force flies Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29, MiG-35, MiG-31 and MiG-31K with the pilots using Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) built in Ukraine.


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Now, Russia's Electroautomatics Experimental Design Bureau, which has already replaced Ukraine's SURA systems used by Sukhoi Su-27SM3, Su-30SM and Su-35S pilots with its HMD, will soon start supplying the same for the MiG pilots after the necessary modifications.


According to Electroautomatics First Deputy CEO Anatoly Shukalov, the first indigenous helmet-mounted target acquisition and display systems for the MiGs will be delivered in 2021.


"As for the planes developed by the Mikoyan firm, the devices that we demonstrated from the viewpoint of substituting the imported Ukrainian systems with our versions on Sukhoi planes, which was done, precisely the same work is underway for replacing the items on the aircraft developed by the Mikoyan firm. In principle, next year (we will begin the deliveries to the troops) and nothing impedes this process. The system itself is autonomous and has undergone trials. Only the mathematical software has to be finalized for interaction with the aircraft’s systems," Russian news agency TASS quoted Anatoly Shukalov as saying on June 16, 2020.


Russia had been importing several military hardware from neighbouring countries including Ukraine which were once part of the USSR/ But relations between Russia and Ukraine have been frosty for the last several years and nosedived after the former annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 with the help of local militia.


While Electroautomatics has not revealed the specifications of its HMD, the Ukrainian SURA helmet-mounted target designation system is "intended for quick aiming of guided weapon and viewing systems at visual targets by pilot’s head turn without aircraft course change". "The upgraded version of the SURA HMTDS – the SURA-I is intended for aiming and flight information displaying in the pilot’s field-of-view. The new and serial helmet mounted units are identical by form, weight and dimensions, attaching-mechanical and electrical parameters," the Ukrinmash sales brochure states.