‘The Last Salute’: Flying high with the MiG-21s

The ‘Song of Tumansky’ no longer reverberates in the skies over South Asia but its legacy continues. About a year after the MiG-21’s Tumansky R-11 engines switched off for the last time on the tarmac of the Chandigarh airbase, their spirit has been brought alive by a documentary, ‘The Last Salute’.

It’s a warm tribute to what is perhaps the most iconic fighter aircraft that not only defended the Indian airspace for 62 long years, but carried the battle well inside enemy territory.

Directed by Kushal Srivastava, co-creator of the ‘Operation Safed Sagar’ series that too revolves around the MiG-21 and its wartime role during the 1999 Kargil conflict, the film focuses on the final operational days of the aircraft with No. 23 Squadron, the Panthers.

The MiG-21 was one of the longest serving and most consequential fighter aircraft in the IAF, having shaped the force’s operational culture over a major portion of its history. It was India’s first supersonic fighter and the first major combat aircraft acquired from the erstwhile Soviet Union. Also licence-built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, 874 aircraft across several variants were procured and at its peak formed about 60 per cent of the fighter element, equipping about 20 squadrons.

Tracing its chequered journey from the early 1960s through the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars and then the Kargil conflict and the 2019 aerial engagement in the aftermath of the airstrikes on terror camps in Balakot, the documentary commemorates its role and the deep personal bonds formed by those who flew it.

Through interviews with serving and retired pilots and ground crew, including the present Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, who flew the aircraft’s last operational sortie at Chandigarh — the same base from where the aircraft began its tryst with the IAF in 1963 — the documentary weaves together an interesting audio-visual narrative.

Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa (retd), who commanded a MiG-21 squadron, the Golden Arrows, during the Kargil conflict, talks about the arduous recce sorties and pioneering night-bombing missions under extreme conditions.

At least six IAF Chiefs have commanded MiG-21 squadrons. In fact, Air Chief Marshal AY Tipnis, who led the IAF during the Kargil conflict, served with the 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, the last flying MiG-21 unit.

The First Supersonics was raised in 1963 by then Wing Commander Dilbagh Singh, who later became the Air Chief.

Officers across several generations have shared their experiences. All IAF fighter pilots commissioned in the mid-1960s’ onwards till the present generation of mid and senior-level officers would have trained upon and flown the MiG-21.

The recollections of their experiences in war, peacetime and training add the required human touch and emotions to what may otherwise have been a dry roll.

They talk about the excitement of strapping into the cockpit, the respect they developed for the aircraft, the high degree of skill, focus and courage required, the exhilaration of a mission completed, the pride to be a MiG-21 aviator and the lingering nostalgia of an air warrior.

The glorification of the venerable MiG-21 apart, the aircraft also had its share of controversy with the high accident rate that afflicted the fleet in the later part of its service — one of the aspects that gets little attention in the documentary.

Discussions on the aircraft’s safety record are limited, with a few officers featured restricting themselves to explaining or contextualising the problems rather than examining the issue in depth.

There would be several significant missions by the MiG-21, some still under the cloak of official secrecy, that remain away from public gaze. For the aviation enthusiast, it is a highly watchable film.