Originally Posted by
Pali
I found this photo (probably from some printed aviation or army magazine) with Magic 2 under Slovakian Mig-29 wing. It must be quite an old photo because that particular Mig-29 per tail number was destroyed in a crash in November 2002.
This missile is supposedly made backwards compatible with the Sidewinder launch hardware so my question is how hard it is to put such hardware on soviet made fighter. Per Wiki Romanian AF uses them till today on their Mig-21 fighters.
Our Slovakian Migs are supposed to be transferred to Ukraine soon and I wonder how hard it is to adjust them to carry western made weapons especially HARM missiles which may play a role in expected oncoming offensive of Ukraine.
I don't know about the compatibility of Russian/Western ordnance in general, but
Sidewinder/Magic is not an "in general" case.
In the late 1950's, through China, the USSR was able to acquire an early model of AIM-9
Sidewinder. The Soviet Union reverse-engineered this example to produce its own AA-2
Atoll missile; copied to the extent that not only is it compatible with AIM-9 launching hardware but that the individual missile modules are themselves interchangeable.
If Magic was conceived as being backwards compatible with Sidewinder, it follows that a degree of 3-way
Atoll/Sidewinder/Magic compatibility has been inherited.