From Crown Jewel To Flying Coffin: IAF To Phase Out Iconic Mig-21 Fighter Jets After 62 Years
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New Indian Express
an hour ago
- New Indian Express
Retirement of MiG fighter jets, concerns grow over delayed Tejas induction, shrinking combat strength
NEW DELHI: While preparations are underway to bid adieu to the last squadron of MiG aircraft on 19 September at Chandigarh this year, anxieties persist regarding the falling number of combat squadrons and, more significantly, the slow pace of production of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) intended to replace these longest-serving fighter jets. The jets of the Number 23 Squadron, MiG-21, will be flying for the last time. Inducted into the IAF in 1963, the MiG-21 was initially acquired for the role of a high-altitude interceptor. It was later retasked for ground attack. The USSR had designed it to counter aircraft such as the American U-2 spy plane. The first induction of the Russian-origin single-engine MiG-21 fighters took place in 1963, with different versions joining the IAF subsequently. As of now, the IAF continues to operate one squadron of the MiG-21 Bison at Suratgarh. A squadron in the IAF comprises 16–18 aircraft. However, an element of anxiety persists within the combat fraternity of the Air Force: following the retirement of the 23 Squadron, the IAF's combat squadron strength will fall to its lowest ever—29 squadrons—against the sanctioned strength of 42. 'It is a logical move as there is a shift in aerial combat—from close combat to acquisition and attack with missiles, which initially ranged a few kilometres but now exceed 100 kms,' said a fighter pilot, adding, 'The war now includes electronic warfare and has progressed to an informatised format.' The move was long due and aligns with existing plans, as the aircraft has long lived its age. 'The Pakistan Air Force, which inducted the F-104 long back, no longer operates that aircraft,' said a source. The concern, however, is not the retirement of the MiGs itself; it is the absence of a clear and timely replacement. 'The delays in induction of indigenously manufactured Light Combat Aircraft Tejas,' said the source. Overall, the Indian Air Force operated 24 fighter squadrons and four training units of MiG-21s. The IAF flew over 850 MiG-21s over six decades—a scale unmatched by most air forces. The aircraft, often nicknamed the 'Flying Coffin', saw approximately 300 losses in accidents. Interestingly, the birth of Tejas is closely linked with the MiG's phase-out. It is due to delays in the LCA project that the IAF took time in retiring the MiG-21s and replacing them with the indigenously developed Tejas, the source explained. The LCA was conceived in the late 1980s to replace the MiG-21s. After decades of delays due to production issues, the IAF now possesses 40 of the initial lot of Tejas aircraft. Last year, the IAF signed a ₹48,000-crore deal for 83 Tejas Mk1A fighters. As The New Indian Express reported earlier, the IAF is keen to induct close to 100 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighters. Once this order is fulfilled over the stipulated 15 years, the IAF will have 40 LCA, over 180 LCA Mk-1A, and at least 120 LCA Mk-2 aircraft. The first Tejas aircraft flew in 2001—17 years after the programme was initiated. The actual induction started 15 years later, in 2016. The first indigenous LCA was inducted in July 2016. The first IAF squadron to receive the Tejas was No. 45 Squadron, the 'Flying Daggers', which was earlier a MiG-21 Bis squadron. Tejas Mk1A is the newer and improved version of India's single-engine, 4.5-generation delta wing multirole combat aircraft, designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency. The delays in Tejas deliveries have caused anxiety, culminating in a 'no confidence' remark from the IAF Chief in February. The delay in the delivery of Tejas fighter aircraft by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) led to the comment by Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh. While inspecting an aircraft at Aero India 2025, Singh was heard telling HAL officials, 'I can only tell you what our requirements and our worries are... At the moment, I am just not confident of HAL, which is a very wrong thing to happen.' The video was captured and posted by the defence news channel NationalDefence. However, HAL officials have expressed confidence in delivering 12 Tejas fighters in this financial year. The Air Chief highlighted that the force has yet to receive all 40 Tejas Mk1 jets ordered in 2010. The Indian Air Force currently operates only 36 Tejas Mk1 jets, with four deliveries still pending. Since the 1960s, MiGs have touched the lives of every IAF pilot, directly or indirectly. As September approaches, the feeling of melancholy among them is only natural.
Indian Express
10 hours ago
- Indian Express
Man with most flying hours on MIG-21 wants one last sortie as it flies into the sunset
When it comes to MIG-21s, there is no one more knowledgeable than Air Commodore Surendra Singh Tyagi (retd), who has a record-breaking 4,306 hours flying the aircraft–a feat acknowledged by the Russians themselves–and a staggering 6316 sorties in total. So when he speaks about the pros and cons of the Russian aircraft, everyone listens. And now, when the departure of MIG-21 BISON from the Indian Air Force (IAF) is imminent, all that the 83-year-old veteran fighter pilot wants is one last take-off roll down the runway in the power-packed aircraft before it bids adieu. 'This is one request which I will be making to the Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, whom I shall be meeting very soon,' says Air Marshal Tyagi in a freewheeling conversation with this reporter over the phone from his home in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The intrepid fighter pilot who flew almost every fighter aircraft in IAF's inventory till he retired in 1996 made Jamnagar his home after multiple tenures there and finally retiring as the air officer commanding of the Jamnagar air base. 'I would also be presenting my logbook, which I have meticulously maintained throughout my service from the first day to the last to the air chief with the request that it may be placed in the IAF museum, where it could serve as an inspiration for future generations,' says Air Commodore Tyagi. Air Commodore Tyagi has flown aircraft ranging from Vampires, Hunters, Gnat, Ajeet, Jaguar, Canberra, MIG-23, MIG-29, and Mirage during his service in the IAF from 1965 to 1996. Air Commodore Tyagi's first operational unit was 27 Squadron flying Hunters before he moved to MIGs. Initially he flew Vampires. In 1968 he trained on MIG-21s in the No. 45 Squadron in Chandigarh, where pilots were given operational conversion training on MIG-21 FL. 'Hunter was a docile aircraft. We never thought of MIG-21s as a problem aircraft, though it was very different. We never felt any problem. It was definitely fast handling, and the challenge was of a kind that you were always busy in the cockpit,' recalls Tyagi. He says the MIG-21 FL type 77 had a fixed gunsight while the Hunter had a gyro sight. 'In firing from a MIG-21, you have to cater for a lot of things. Also, Hunter used to turn very well, and we initially thought it turned better than MIGs. Later, after flying MIGs, I found that the vertical manoeuvring of the aircraft was very good. However, the aircraft would not react instantly, whatever the pilot demanded of it, and the pilot had to understand what the aircraft wanted,' he says. In those early days of MIG-21 in the IAF, the pilots used to wear pressurised spacesuits of the same kind that Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had worn into space. 'Actually, when MIG-21 came to India, it was considered to be an interceptor aircraft. It was very agile at great heights, going up to 24 km at times at speeds close to 2.4 mach. You would be really climbing like a rocket. Then we modified it into the ground attack role with rocket pods and external guns, 500 kg bombs on either side, which we used extensively in the 1971 war. We used to get reasonably good results,' Air Commodore Tyagi says. Tyagi says that in the MIG-21 Type 96, the drag increased, and they were not as fast in the ground attack role. But with time came the MIG21 BIS upgrade, and it had a powerful engine. We flew to 12.3 km height in two minutes and 40 seconds. The Type 96 MIG 21 M was also very stable for air-to-ground firing,' he says. Having seen 24 postings in his operational service, Air Commodore Tyagi served in a number of MIG-21 squadrons and went on to command No. 35 and No. 32 squadrons besides serving a tenure in Iraq as an instructor. Air Commodore Tyagi underwent no ejection from MIG-21 but went through a crash landing on the runway in Pathankot in October 1978 and was very lucky to walk away alive. 'I had two rocket pods and three tanks on my aircraft. On short finals, I was asked to go around because of a dog on the runway. I raised my nose, opened maximum power, and started climbing. At around 150 m, the nozzle failed, the cone failed, the engine thrust went down, and the engine flamed out. As part of the ejection sequence which I initiated, the canopy flew off. But I saw that I was too low to continue the ejection within safety margins. The aircraft landed on its belly as the undercarriage was retracted for the go around. On the other side of the runway, there were five aircraft of the No. 3 Squadron waiting to fly, and I was in danger of piling into them. It was a Tuesday, and as I used to fast for Hanuman, I felt nothing would go wrong. The aircraft lurched to a halt well past these, and I unstrapped and ran out. I have never run so hard in my life, and the aircraft exploded behind me. Later, I flew more MIG-21s after the crash than I flew before. 'In 2013, the Russian ambassador gave me a trophy for the maximum hours on MIG-21. Earlier, in 1993, then PM Narasimha Rao called me and felicitated me. I never flew for myself. You flew for the people with you, and you gave them whatever positive things you learnt. The then chief presented me with a golden plaque,' says Air Commodore Tyagi. The veteran pilot says the growth of the IAF is related to the growth of MIG-21 in the country. 'Modernising gradually and slowly now we have reached the fourth generation. At one time, 70-75 per cent of IAF squadrons had MIG-21. When you calculate the rate of accidents, it is not alarming. But when you calculate the number, it is alarming,' he says. Air Commodore Tyagi says an IAF fighter pilot is a 'soldier pilot' because he puts his country ahead of his safety. 'In earlier MIG-21s, we used to see it written on the nose that 'this aircraft costs Rs 47 lakh'. Our pay at the time used to be Rs 1,200-1,400. You used to be conscious that India cannot afford to lose the aircraft. 'Later, when low-level sorties started and we went into the ground attack role, we used to have bird hits. The brief was to pull up, gain height and reheat the engine. But an engine with turbine damage will not relight. Our pilots tried to relight and were so low that ejection was not possible, and they used to crash with aircraft. Abroad, no pilot waits, he ejects,' he says. Air Commodore Tyagi says the fatalities went down when the procedures were amended. 'This is one of the best aircraft ever produced. Every fighter pilot in the world wants to fly a MIG 21,' he says.
NDTV
10 hours ago
- NDTV
MiG-21's Final Flight: Why Training, Not The Jet, Failed Air Force Pilots
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is preparing to retire its fleet of Russian-origin MiG-21 fighter jets in September. The aircraft, which played a key role in India's military campaigns, including the 1971 war against Pakistan, has been both celebrated as a formidable war machine and stigmatised as the "flying coffin" due to its high accident rate. With just two months until the final flight on September 19, historian and Indian Air Force expert Anchit Gupta joined NDTV to provide a detailed perspective on the MiG-21's legacy, dissecting its triumphs, challenges, and the reasons behind its controversial nickname. Introduced to the IAF in 1963, the MiG-21 was initially acquired for a specific role: as a high-altitude interceptor designed to counter aircraft like the American U-2 spy plane. Mr Gupta, whose father flew the MiG-21 during his service, recalled the aircraft's distinct roar as a morning alarm at airbases. "The MiG-21 is extremely close to my heart. And I saw my father fly it. We used to live at the bases. That was our alarm in the morning to wake up. I remember 1986 Operation Brasstacks. My father was in Bhuj, going into the trenches and counting the aircraft coming back to the base. So there is an emotion to MiG-21 for all of us," Mr Gupta told NDTV. MiG-21F-13, designated Type 74 from 1963 The IAF operated around 800 to 1,000 MiG-21s over six decades, a scale unmatched by most air forces. Of these, approximately 300 were lost in accidents. "That is a very sobering statistic. But there's no time lapse to that statistic, and therefore, people struggle to make sense of it. I think the answer very much lies in what we did with the aircraft. The aircraft was acquired for a very, very limited role, to be honest. It was a high-altitude interceptor. The original design of the MIG was to intercept the U-2," Mr Gupta said. The aircraft's role evolved far beyond its original design, encompassing ground attack, fighter reconnaissance, air defence, and, critically, jet training -- a role, Mr Gupta said, it was never intended to fulfil. "Flying Coffin" Label: A Misnomer? The MiG-21's reputation as a "flying coffin" stems from its high crash rate. Mr Gupta challenged this label, arguing that the aircraft's accident record is less about inherent flaws and more about systemic issues in pilot training and aircraft acquisition. "It's very much linked to our procurement. Our combat squadron strength went from eight squadrons in 1947 to nearly 40 squadrons in 1965. Now you have sanctioned it, how do you acquire? And so we were huffing and puffing to acquire more aircraft, and MiG-21 came out of nowhere with the USSR saying, 'Listen, I'll do technology transfer, you manufacture it locally.' It was something that really fell into our laps," Mr Gupta told NDTV. The MiG-21 When the MiG-21 entered service, only the IAF's most experienced pilots were assigned to it due to its demanding flight characteristics. The aircraft's small size, limited cockpit visibility, and high landing speed of over 300 km/h made it unforgiving, particularly for novices. The MiG-21U trainer variant was ill-suited for training. The IAF relied on subsonic trainers like the Kiran and Iskra, which were inadequate for preparing pilots for the MiG-21's supersonic performance. The gap between basic trainers and the MiG-21 widened as the fleet expanded from eight squadrons in 1963 to nearly half the IAF's strength by the 1980s. "The biggest difference is speed. The speed at which you are performing the manoeuvres, the actions that you are doing, dramatically changes. That is the biggest difference, whether it is mid-air manoeuvres, whether it is landing or whether it is taking off,' Mr Gupta said. The "Human Error" Factor The IAF's attribution of many MiG-21 crashes to "human error" has often been misunderstood, he added. Mr Gupta explained that human error, in aviation terms, does not necessarily blame the pilot. "Air Force doesn't mean 'human error' in the way people interpret it," Mr Gupta said. "In the simplest form it means that when you've done an accident investigation, you've realised that the accident happened because the pilot in control made a mistake. Now that mistake has a cause behind it. That cause could be training. You have not trained the pilot appropriately. That cause could be inexperience. "That cause could be psychological, that cause could be disorientation, tons of causes behind it." For young pilots transitioning from subsonic trainers to the MiG-21, the lack of adequate preparation was a significant contributor. The stigma of "human error" often compounds the pain for families, who perceive it as blaming the pilot rather than acknowledging systemic issues. "I haven't met a single MiG-21 pilot who said he didn't love the jet," Mr Gupta said. "It's a big regret. They love the aircraft, but they love their colleagues more. And every life lost is a story that remains etched on the psyche forever. I think the human element is actually made worse off by how we categorise the loss. To the family or to a civilian, it sounds like we're blaming the pilot, and then the emotion comes out. The guy had barely started flying. This is an unforgiving aircraft, the aircraft has problems, and now you have the audacity to blame the pilot and say 'human error,'" he added. The MiG-21's Combat Record Despite its challenges, the MiG-21's combat record is formidable. During the 1971 India-Pakistan war, the MiG-21FL (Type 77) earned the moniker "runway buster" for its ground attack role, with 240 units manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The aircraft was instrumental in India's victory. In 1999, during the Kargil conflict, MiG-21s performed admirably, though the war also saw the loss of Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja in a crash. Post-Kargil, Squadron Leader Prashant Kumar Bundela shot down a Pakistani Atlantique maritime patrol aircraft. In 2019, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, flying a MiG-21 Bison, engaged Pakistani aircraft during the Balakot operation, downing an F-16 despite facing advanced adversaries like AMRAAM-armed F-16s and JF-17s. The Bison variant, introduced in the early 2000s, remains contemporary, equipped with an Israeli jammer, Russian R-77 and R-73 missiles, a partial glass cockpit, and a helmet-mounted sight. Its short scramble time makes it ideal for forward bases like Srinagar, where it outperformed alternatives like the MiG-29. "There's a very interesting point around the 2019 incident. You know, there's a lens people wear which says, 'Why was the MiG-21 there? Why didn't we have the MiG-29? Why didn't we have the Su-30?' People don't know that there was no other aircraft capable of being at Srinagar at that time other than the MiG-21. It has the shortest scramble time to date," Mr Gupta said. The MiG-29 "We have replaced it with a MiG-29 in Srinagar. I hate to say this, but it is not ideal for Srinagar, even today. A MiG-21 today is more ideal than the units we have there because you don't have a gyro, you have a single engine, light it, off you go, and therefore even today in the last 8 to 10 years or longer, MIG-21 has been our Operational Readiness Platform (ORP) guardian. It is the jet that scrambles. You put small detachments across all our forward bases. Imagine with the MIG-21 going away, who's supposed to fill that shoe? Who is supposed to fill that shoe? It's supposed to be the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). It is supposed to be the LCA. I hope it does," he added.
