MiG-21: The flying coffin
Defence
A MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed in Rajasthan's Barmer during a routine training sortie on Wednesday. The pilot ejected safely and was rushed to the hospital by villagers after sustaining minor injuries.
At present, the Indian Air Force has around six squadrons of Mig-21 Bisons. A single squadron comprises of 18 aircrafts.
Fourth accident in a year
This was the fourth incident involving a MiG-21 Bison aircraft this year.
In May, another MiG-21 Bison fighter jet crashed in an open field at Langeana Nawan village in Punjab's Moga district, killing its 28-year-old pilot.
In January, another MiG-21 Bison aircraft crashed at Suratgarh airbase in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar district. The pilot of the aircraft had managed to eject safely.
Are these aircrafts safe?
Another Indian Air Force pilot flying a MiG-21 Bison fighter jet - Captain A Gupta - was killed during an accident in March. The accident took place as the aircraft was taking off for a combat training mission at an airbase in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior.
Accidents such as these have led to the aircraft’s safety record being called into question on a number of occasions in the past few decades.
Flying coffins
These accidents have also led to the MiG-21s being dubbed as the ‘flying coffin’ or the ‘widow maker’. In 2013, then Defence Minister A K Antony had said since its induction into the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 1963, as many as 482 MiG-21s had been involved in accidents leading to the death of 171 pilots, 39 civilians, and eight personnel from other services.
History of the aircraft
The MIG-21s are single-engine, single-seater, multirole fighter/ground attack aircraft of Russian origin which forms the backbone of the IAF. It has a max speed of 2230 km/hr (Mach 2.1) and carries one 23mm twin-barrel cannon with four R-60 close combat missiles.
In 1963, the Air Force first inducted a fleet of 874 MiG-21 fighter jets of Soviet origin to increase its combat ability during the Cold War.
‘Has outlived utility’
A section of the IAF believes that more than safety, the Russian aircraft has outlived its utility and should have been phased out in the 1980s.
“The aircraft was designed in the 1950s and should have served maximum until the 1980s,” an IAF source said. “The Soviet Union, which made these fighters, retired them somewhere around 1985. The Russians took a MiG-21 from us to put it in their museum. That is how vintage these aircraft are.”
The aircraft first underwent an upgrade in the 1970s and the variant was known as the MiG-21 Bis.
The decision to decommission the MIG-21s in a phased manner was initiated in the early 1980s and a new project, TEJAS was to be launched instead. Later in 2000, IAF upgraded 125 MiG-21 Bis aircraft to MiG-21 Bison.
Then why are we still using it?
Thanks to red-tapism and delayed decision making, the project TEJAS has taken a lot of time to be implemented. Expected to be out of service completely by 2024, the reason for operating MIG’s even today is the non-availability of other fighter jets.
If all the MIG’s are decommissioned from immediate effect, we will have a serious void in the number of fighter jets owned by our country, which can lead to threats in secured airfields.
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