Digital Desk: One of the Indian Air Force's four squadrons of ageing MiG-21 fighter jets will be retired in September, while the other three will be phased out over the following three years, according to persons familiar with the matter on Friday.
The officials claimed
that the phasing out of the squadrons is unrelated to the July 28 Barmer crash,
which claimed the lives of two fighter pilots, and is instead a component of an
earlier air force strategy to replace the MiG-21s with more modern fighter
aircraft.
One of the officials
mentioned above, who requested anonymity, stated that the squadron retiring in
two months is the No. 51 squadron, based in Srinagar and also known as
"Sword Arms." In the No. 51 squadron at the time, Wing Commander (now
Group Captain) Abhinandan Varthaman received the Vir Chakra for downing a
Pakistani F-16 during a duel over the Line of Control on February 27, 2019.
A day after the IAF
destroyed a terror site in Pakistan's Balakot, there was a dogfight.
A number of MiG-21
crashes in recent years have brought attention to India's longest-serving
fighter plane, its safety record, and the IAF's intentions to replace the
outdated aircraft with newer ones in the years to come.
The Air Force received
its first single-engine MiG-21 in 1963, and to increase its combat capability,
it went on to induct 874 different models of the Soviet-made supersonic
fighter. According to the officials, around 400 MiG-21s were engaged in
accidents over the course of the last six decades that lost the lives of almost
200 pilots.
Since they made up the
majority of the IAF's fighter inventory for a long period and the air force had
to keep its MiG-21 fleet in service longer than it would have preferred due to
a delay in the introduction of new fighters, they noted, more MiG-21s have
crashed than any other fighter.
Was a decision
possible? To protect your skies, you must have a specific quantity of fighter
aircraft. The light combat aircraft (LCA) programme is running behind schedule,
the induction of multi-role fighters was delayed, only 36 Rafales arrived
instead of the anticipated 126 jets, and fighters like the Sukhoi-30 have
experienced serviceability concerns. Former assistant chief of air staff Air
Vice Marshal Sunil Nanodkar (retired) had stated that the IAF had to make due
with its MiG-21 force.
To replace the MiG-21s, the IAF will introduce various Tejas light combat aircraft versions.
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