Hrishabh Tiwari
17/03/2021
IAF's Mig-21 Bison is known to be one of the best 3rd generation fighter aircraft. However in recent times, this aircraft has been surrounded by many questions. Between 2010 to 2013, 14 Mig-21 aircraft have crashed and since its induction 170 IAF pilots and 40 civilians have been killed in Mig-21(all-variants) crashes, giving it an unwelcoming name "Flying Coffin".
Is it high time we phase out all Mig-21 Bison at once?
MiG-21 BISON : Single engine, single seater multirole fighter/ground attack aircraft of Russian origin which forms the back-bone of the IAF. It has a max speed of 2,230 km/hr (Mach 2.1) and carries one 23mm twin barrel cannon with four R-60 close combat missiles.
Indian Air Force inducted this variant of Mig-21 series in early 1980s.
Mig-21 Bison holds a special place in the Indian Air Force history, as it was the jet flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman which shot down PAF's F-16FF in the year 2019.
Incidentally, in 2016 Flying Officer Avani Chaturvedi created history by becoming the first Indian woman pilot of the IAF to complete a solo flight in a MiG-21 Bison.
Despite all these positives, Mig-21 Bison has been making the headlines for all wrong reasons. In recent times these aircrafts have got major safety issues, with time these jets have become very vulnerable for flying. Over half of the Mig-21s manufactured by Mikoyan have been lost to crash. Most of the advanced Air forces of the world do not fly these 3rd gen aircrafts anymore and that makes people wonder, why does Indian Air Force have over 100 of these jets in service?
Delay in phasing out Mig-21 Bison
Indian Air Force plans to retire all upgraded Mig-21 Bison from service by 2025 and the replacement of the four squadrons of the upgraded Mig-21 Bison would be India's own LCA Tejas.
These aircrafts were meant to retire by 2019-2020 but for the reasons that IAF retired the Mig-27 from service in Dec 2019 and to maintain the operational fleet, squadron strength, the Bisons will now be in service till 2025.
The delay is also due to the mere reason that the political parties lacked desire to purchase fighter jets to upgrade the old age squadron fleet of the IAF. After a long wait, MoD has placed order for 83 LCA Tejas from HAL costing ₹45,696 Crore.
The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited plans to deliver 73 LCA Tejas Mk1A and 10 LCA Tejas Mk1 trainers by 2026. The first of these jets have been planned to be delivered by 2024.
Many IAF officer and aviation journalists have been critical of the questions raised on these aircrafts. Few have aligned with the use of Mig-21 and few have been anti.
"To hold up against today's fighter-jets, an aircraft needs the latest technology such as advanced avionics and radar, greater weapon-load capacity, stealth technology, electronic warfare capability, precision weaponry and other such features, which the MiG-21 does not have."
-Air Marshal Padamjit Singh Ahluwalia (retd), former chief of the western air command
“Aircraft retirement has little to do with induction date. The life of an aircraft is described in flying hours or years of service. Typically after an upgrade, the aircraft life is extended by a certain amount. In the case of the MiG-27, this was around 10 years, whereas for the MiG-21 Bison, the figure was 15 years. Considering both aircraft were upgraded around the same time in the mid-2000s, the MiG-27 would logically be retired earlier.”
-Angad Singh, aviation journalist