The World : India Gets Newest MIGs

India received a shipment of MIG-29 jets, the first delivery of the Soviet Union’s most advanced fighter aircraft to a non-Warsaw Pact nation. The Press Trust of India said the planes were shipped in sections for assembly. It did not say how many were received. India agreed last July to buy about 40 of the twin-engine, single-seat planes. They were scheduled for delivery in April, but the date was moved up shortly before Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s visit to India in November. India says the planes are needed to counter the F-16s supplied to Pakistan by the United States.