MiG-21 retirement a reminder about slacking defence procurement

The Indian Air Force on Friday retired its famed Soviet-designed Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 fighter jets after 62 years of service.

The aircraft, primarily designed to intercept and shoot down attacking enemy jets, quickly became the mainstay of the Air Force, even conducting ground-attack missions.

Over the decades, the IAF inducted more than 850 MiG-21s of several variants. Many of them were licence-built in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. Some variants were gradually withdrawn over the years. The last type to retire was the upgraded Bison.

During the 1971 war, the MiG-21s bombed critical sites in East Pakistan and hastened the Pakistani military’s surrender. During the 1999 Kargil war, they were deployed to conduct air patrols and reconnaissance.

In 2019, a day after the Balakot air strike, a MiG-21 flown by fighter pilot Abhinandan Varthaman was among the jets scrambled to intercept Pakistani aircraft.

Despite serving the IAF well during conflicts, a series of fatal crashes in the early 2000s led the MiG-21 to be known as the “flying coffin”, or more inappropriately, the “widow maker”.

From the financial year 1971-’72 to April 2012, the last day for which official data is available, 171 pilots, several service personnel and 39 civilians were killed in 482 MiG-21 crashes and accidents.

The fatalities even formed the central plot of the 2006 Hindi language film Rang De Basanti as the protagonist’s fiancé, a MiG-21...

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