This is one of those things that never really quite wants to go away. The prospect of a DCS World full fidelity model of the MiG-29 remains an interesting one and a recent post on the Eagle Dynamics TikTok makes us wonder once again if something is in motion. Time for some examination of the latest information and a healthy dose of speculation.
Is it really time for the MiG-29?
I’ve reported on this before. In 2020 I wrote about some level of confirmation by Eagle Dynamics Chief Operating Officer, Kate Perederko, about plans to make a full fidelity recreation of the MiG-29. Then again, in January of 2021, about the connected fates of the Ka-50 Black Shark 3 project and the MiG-29 with the word that the team doing the Black Shark 3 would then turn around and do the MiG-29 after.
We of course now have the completed Black Shark 3 project in our hands which means that efforts on that project are more or less done and are in the process of being retasked on something else. Clearly, Eagle Dynamics were able to surmount whatever challenges were posed to them in creating the helicopter and managed to add a few features. This done presumably without running afoul of any legal issues that were referenced in said articles.
Now for the MiG-29 which has periodically come up over the last few years. We have this response from BIGNEWY back in the summer of 2022 mentioning that the team is looking into it.
We would like to do many aircraft, but we are subject to international and local laws regarding data on aircraft, we are currently looking into doing the Mig-29 and when we have more news we will share it.
BIGNEWY on the DCS World forums
And then we have today where the Eagle Dynamics TikTok account posted a short clip of a MiG-29G (former East German version) flying in the clouds with the all important caption.
How many want to see a Full Fidelity MiG-29 in DCS? Like, follow and comment if you do!
That’s the caption but now let’s see the TikTok:
Thoughts and speculation
This TikTok post has naturally spread itself far and wide across the DCS World community causing much discussion. There is natural skepticism here and that is of course warranted. We know that legal issues combined with the ongoing war and high tensions make anything “recent” of Russian origin a real challenge to model at a high fidelity level.
Simulating anything modern is a huge challenge and even the relatively modern western stuff that we have is still 15 and sometimes 20 years old. The likely version of the MiG-29 that they would do would be an earlier model circa early 1980s and thus around 40 years old.
One way that they may try and make it work would be by modeling the MiG-29G, as shown on TikTok, thus sidestepping at least a few avionics issues by using better documented western equipment. Would that be enough? None of us on the outside would know so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
We already know that Eagle Dynamics are willing to bend a little bit with avionics to make a module a reality thanks to the recent announcement about the J-8II from Deka Iron Works.
In all of this, one thing is clear: Eagle Dynamics still appears keen to try and make this project a reality. Reality may ultimately get in the way of this project over the short term but I am usually a fan of never saying never.
This latest TikTok tease goes into the folder next to all of the other times that this project has been referenced. It doesn’t mean that an announcement is imminent, or that a project will appear quickly, but it does mean that I may some day write a post about it coming into early access. And that would be great to see.
Stormbirds 
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