Air chief expected to fly last MiG-21 sortie as it flies into the sunset after 6 decades

Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh is expected to fly the last sortie of the MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft when it culminates its 62-year journey with the Indian Air Force on September 26.

Announcing this during the full-dress rehearsal at the Air Force Station, Chandigarh, on Wednesday, IAF officials said the ceremony will be presided over by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen Anil Chauhan, Chief of the Army Staff, Gen Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Dinesh Tripathi, Air Officers Commanding-in Chief of all IAF commands and other senior military officials are expected to be present.

In addition, six former IAF chiefs -- Air Chief Marshal Anil Yashwant Tipnis, Air Chief Marshal Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy, Air Chief Marshal Shashindra Pal Tyagi, Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik, Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa and Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria will be attending the ceremony.

In fact, Air Chief Marshal Tipnis, who had led the IAF during the Kargil conflict in 1999, had served with No. 28 Squadron, the First Supersonics, into which the first MiG-21s were inducted in 1963, during the 1965 Indo-Pak war. Later, he commanded No. 23 Squadron, the Panthers, which is now the last flying MiG-21 unit.

The first Chief of Air Staff from the MiG-21 stream was Air Chief Marshal Dilbagh Singh, who had raised No. 28 Squadron in 1963 when he was a Wing Commander.  All Air Chiefs hence would have at one point of time in their career, trained on and served in MiG-21 squadrons before converting to other fighter aircraft. MiG-21s were the backbone of operational conversion for fighter pilots after basic flying training.

So far six officers who have commanded MiG-21 squadrons have become Air Chief. In fact, Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhri, the last air chief to retire in September 2024, had also commanded No. 28 Squadron, but the unit had converted to the MiG-29 by 1987, and is based at Adampur in Punjab.

Six aircraft from the Panthers, including one being flown by a woman pilot, Squadron Leader Priya Sharma, are in Chandigarh for the culmination ceremony. The MiG-21s had started their flight with the IAF from Chandigarh.

The MiG-21s will be flying in the Badal formation of three aircraft in an inverted ‘V’ configuration. Last month, the Air Chief had flown a solo sortie in a MiG-21 from Nal airbase near Bikaner in Rajasthan where Squadron Leader Priya Sharma was part of the flight formation.

The last of the remaining MiG-21s are based at Nal, with No. 23 Squadron and No. 3 Squadron, the Cobras, which was the first to receive the upgraded ‘Bison’ version in the mid-2000s when it was based at Ambala.

A commemorative flypast by a formation of three Mig-21s flanked by two indigenous Tejas fighters and trailed by the aircraft from the Suryakiran aerobatic display, a simulated dogfight between Jaguar and MiG-21 fighters, performance by the Suryakiran and freefall by the Akash Ganga skydiving team are among highlights of the culmination ceremony.

A traditional ‘water salute’ with streams from fire tenders forming an aquatic arch over the aircraft taxing into the dispersal bay for the last time on touchdown after the final flypast will mark the end of the over six-decade flight of the MiG-21 with the IAF.