Re: Genuine question
Your plan would make sense if, and it's a big one, the MiG-29K wasn't appallingly put together.
Fair enough. On the other hand, Russians are also perfectly willing to let large buyers to build their hardware locally under a licence (witness Shenyang J-11). That would channel a large fraction of the cost back into the UK economy, let the UK control the build quality to any desired standard, plus guarantee that it would be able to maintain and operate the fighters independently of the Russians or anybody else.
Again, that would make too much sense so it won't ever happen.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
