No replacement in sight, IAF flying old MiG-21 jets

Ajay Banerjee

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New Delhi, July 29

The MiG-21 fighter jet crash last night near Barmer in Rajasthan raises the big question — why is the Indian Air Force continuing to fly these jets?

Not enough squadrons

• Nearly 70 MiG-21s with IAF are more than 35 years old
• Barring 36 Rafales and 40 Tejas jets, there have been no fresh inductions in past few decades
• IAF has just 32 squadrons against 42 mandated by govt

These jets — nearly 70 in its fleet– are more than 35 years old and are flying on an extended lifecycle as the IAF has not had enough replacements to phase them out. Barring the 36 Rafale jets and 40 Tejas jets, there have been no fresh inductions or orders in the past few decades. Of course, Russia completed its supply of 272 Sukhoi-30 MKI planes (ordered in the late 1990s) over the past two decades or more. The only firm replacement for MiG-21 would be the 83 indigenous planes of the Tejas Mark1A version ordered from HAL. The first batch of these jets are expected to arrive in mid-2024.

At the end of the decade, the IAF would need new inductions. Over the next two-three years, all the four squadrons (each squadron has 16-18 planes) of the MiG-21 fighter jets would retire.

The IAF’s jet fleets comprising the Jaguar, MiG-29 and Mirage 2000 — all inducted during the 1980s – are slated to retire in batches after 2030. These three types of jets add up to about 220 and are operating on an extended lifecycle.

The IAF at present has 32 squadrons against the 42 mandated by the government to tackle a collusive threat from China and Pakistan. The number could go down to 28 squadrons by 2024-25 when all MiG-21s are phased out. So far, India’s plans to get additional MiG-29 and Sukhoi-30 MKI from Russia, as a stop-gap arrangement, have not fructified. A project to procure 114 multi-role fighter aircraft (MRFA) has been in the works for more than 15 years. It was cancelled a few years ago and a fresh tender is out.

India plans to induct the indigenous advanced medium combat aircraft (AMCA), a twin-engine 5th generation stealth fighter. Its first flight is scheduled in 2025; the flight-testing and validation will follow before production.