[1] The design lost out to the Yakovlev Yak-130 in 2002 in the competition for a government contract, and had also been unsuccessfully marketed to countries such as India, Greece, and those of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

[1][2] The design effort on the MiG-AT began when Soviet authorities looked to replace the country's ageing fleet of Aero L-29 and L-39 military trainer aircraft.

[3] Following the freezing of the MiG-AT's final design in early 1994, the Moscow Aircraft Production Association (MAPO) started fabricating the first prototype.

Its official first flight, however, took place on 21 March 1996, when Roman Taskayev took the aircraft aloft for 45 minutes, accompanied by a MiG-29UB and an L-39 acting as chase planes.

[8] The aircraft is powered by two Snecma-Turbomeca Larzac 04R20 turbofan engines, rated at 3,175 lbf (14.12 kN), that had been developed in the 1970s for the Alpha Jet.

[12][13] The Yak-130, however, was said to be superior as it could serve the dual role of a trainer and combat jet,[14] and in the end, on 10 April 2002, it was announced that the Yak-130 had indeed been selected over the MiG-AT.

[14] An aspect of the Mikoyan's original 1993 agreement with the French companies was that the latter would assist in the marketing of the MiG-AT outside the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

[18] UAC announced in December 2023 that it plans to build a new training complex, the main element of which will be the new single-engine MiG-UTS aircraft, which is a spiritual successor of MiG-AT.