Russia builds new MiG-41 interceptor for combat space missions

Rostec State Corporation has started developing a new generation of long-range fighter-interceptor.

"The project of the Prospective Long-Range Interception Aviation Complex (PAK DP) tentatively titled MiG-41 is at the stage of development work," the message posted on the website of the corporation says. Development works are to be completed with the creation of the prototype.

For the time being, 200 different tests have been carried out. The MiG-41 (PAK DP) will take off for its maiden flight already in 2023. By 2030, the "air fighter-interceptor" it so go into serial production to replace the long-range interceptor fighter MiG-31, which was passed into service in 1981.

Earlier, the Russian Aircraft Corporation "MiG" stated that the MiG-41 would be able to perform combat missions in near space. It should become a "completely new aircraft" rather than a profound modernization of its predecessor. The MiG-41 will use completely new technologies to work under the conditions of the Arctic, and in the future it will be able to perform unmanned missions.

In 2017, during the Army-2017 international military forum, MiG CEO Ilya Tarasenko announced that the speed of the new fighter-interceptor would reach Mach 4.3 (4,500 kilometers per hour) at an altitude of more than 25 kilometers.

• It is assumed that the fighter will be created using new stealth technologies and have a very large interception range - up to 1,500 kilometers.
• The R-37 missiles and the prospective R-37M missile will allow this fighter to strike targets at a distance of up to 300 kilometers.

In 2020, the US-based Military Watch magazine wrote that the MiG-41 could combine the advantages of the MiG-25 and MiG-31 interceptors, as well as technologies of new generation.