“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to become the villain.” The iconic line from the movie The Dark Knight could apply to the MiG-21 fighter, an iconic jet in the realm of military aviation. Inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 1963, it took to the skies over Chandigarh one last time on September 26, 2025, at the formal decommissioning ceremony and flew into history after clocking 62 years in service. Speaking on the occasion, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh termed the MiG-21 a “bird of all seasons”. A ceremonial switch-off of six MiG-21 aircraft in front of the dignitaries marked the culmination of the aircraft’s operational service.
The sleek pencil-like jet, described by those who flew it as a “missile with wings”, heralded the onset of supersonic flight in the IAF. Its most famous moment of glory came back in 1971, during the Bangladesh liberation war, but it also saw action during the 1999 Kargil conflict and as recently as the conflict with Pakistan in February 2019, downing a Pakistani F-16 jet. That a jet whose production had been halted decades ago continued to fly in the era of fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) and hypersonic missiles would surprise its designers. Between the design, manufacturing, and engine delays in force modernisation and the lack of long-term vision from the polity, the IAF finds itself in a precarious and unenviable situation.
The origins
The MiG-21 is a supersonic interceptor aircraft designed in the early 1950s by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau, named after its founders, Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich, in the former Soviet Union. The prototype flew in 1955.
After Pakistan acquired the American Lockheed F-104A Starfighters that could fly at Mach 2 speeds and strategic reconnaissance aircraft Martin RB-57 that could fly above 65,000 feet, the IAF began looking for a high-altitude interceptor to restore the balance. Although three options under consideration were all from the West, Defence Minister V K Krishna Menon pitched the Soviet option.
From 1961, Menon had begun to quietly press the case for Soviet-made combat aircraft, citing the advantages of price, payment in rupees, and willingness for licenced production in India, write Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar (retired) and Pushpindar Singh in the book First to the Last: 50 years of MiG-21s with the IAF. “Menon's arguments were rational, but many in the IAF were initially diffident about this 'unknown' Soviet type and its possible performance limitations in certain roles,” they wrote.
Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh (retired) wrote in his memoirs, Birth of an Air Force: “Krishna Menon had an altogether different approach to the matter. With his enthusiasm for self-sufficiency, home manufacture and technological advancement for India, the MiG-21 was the obvious choice. Its manufacture would pitchfork India (and its aviation industry) into a new technological future, as India gradually took over more and more sophisticated items for manufacture. He was right in the end, of course.”
The MiG-21 matched all the attributes IAF was looking for with a maximum speed of Mach 2.05 and an altitude ceiling of 19 kilometres.
In fact, just before the China-India war broke out, on August 26, 1962, the government of India signed a preliminary agreement with the Soviet Union for the manufacture in India of the MiG-21, its engine, avionics, and air-to-air missiles. The earliest variant of the MiG was the MiG-21F-13, also referred to as the Type 74. It could carry two K-13 infra-red homing air-to-air missiles, a single 37 mm NR-37 cannon and a gyro gun sight with radar ranging, as described in the book. Six aircraft were inducted in 1963 at Chandigarh in the No. 28 Squadron – “the first supersonics”.
In the first-ever supersonic air combat in the Indian subcontinent, a MiG-21 shot down a Pakistani F-104 starfighter over the Gulf of Kutch with its front guns, the then IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne wrote in his foreword to the above-mentioned book on February 27, 2013. “By the time the (1971) operations ended, MiG-21s had tallied a total of four F-104, two F-6, one F-86 and one C-130 – an impressive record indeed,” he said. MiG-21s also struck the Governor’s house in Dhaka, in one of the pivotal moments of the war.
The aircraft had high-flying characteristics but also doubled up as a stage-III trainer for rookie pilots to graduate from subsonic trainers to supersonic fighters. This was in the absence of a dedicated Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) till Hawks were inducted in 2008.
More than 11,500 MiG-21s were built worldwide. The IAF inducted 872 MIG-12 jets, of which around 575 were manufactured under licence by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) from 1966 to 1989. Over 100 MiG twin-seat trainers were acquired, but none were manufactured by HAL. At one point, MiG-21s constituted over half the fighter strength. India’s acquisition of the MiG-21 also began the long reign of Russian fighter jets in the IAF, with all other MiG variants procured later — MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-27 and MiG-29. It also built the aircraft manufacturing ecosystem in the country. In the late 90s, the Sukhoi-30 was contracted, with 272 eventually license-manufactured.
Several veteran fighter pilots who spent their careers on the MiG series, particularly the MiG-21, recall how it was the most suitable as an Operational Readiness Platform (ORP). ORPs are fighter aircraft that are ready at key forward air bases to take off within minutes of any contingency, typically five minutes in peacetime. It is the fastest among all fighters in the fleet to get airborne.
Domestic manufacturing
On August 29, 1962, the Government of India signed a preliminary agreement with the Soviet Union for the manufacture in India of the MiG-21, its engine, avionics, and air-to-air missiles.
Following this, it was decided to set up three different factories for manufacturing airframes at Nashik, aero engines at Koraput, and avionics at Hyderabad. The air-to-air missiles were made by Indian ordnance factories. In August 1963, Aeronautics India Ltd (AIL) was incorporated as a wholly owned government company to manufacture the MiG-21 aircraft with factories at Nashik and Koraput. In June 1964, the Aircraft Manufacturing Depot (AMD) was set up in 1960 at Kanpur as an Air Force unit to produce airframes for the HS-748 transport aircraft, which was also transferred to AIL.
In the midst of this, a major decision was taken to restructure and consolidate aircraft manufacturing in the country. On October 1, 1964, the government decided to merge AIL and AMD with Hindustan Aircraft Ltd to form a new public sector company, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd in its present form, while retaining the earlier acronym. The erstwhile HAL was incorporated on December 23, 1940, in Bengaluru by Walchand Hirachand in association with the then government of Mysore, with the aim of manufacturing aircraft in India. The central government took over its management in 1942 and in 1951 it came under the Defence Ministry. Till date, HAL remains the only company in the country to license-manufacture aircraft. It has also indigenously designed and manufactured a range of helicopters.
Safety record
A series of accidents in the late 1990s and early 2000s earned the MiG-21 the moniker of “flying coffin” in the media. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on September 29, 2001, Defence Minister Jaswant Singh said the government does not agree with this kind of “sensationalisation” of security issues. “The MiG-21 remains fully airworthy. These aircraft continue to carry out all the tasks, as planned during their first induction. In addition, maintenance checks and servicing procedures are regularly undertaken so as to ensure full airworthiness of all aircraft.”
However, in another written reply on April 18, 2002, Defence Minister George Fernandes said the IAF lost 102 MiG-21s during the 10 years from April 01, 1992, to March 31, 2002. In these accidents, 39 pilots were killed and an amount of ₹311.99 crore had been lost. A high-powered Committee on Fighter Aircraft Accidents was set up in February, 1997 under the chairmanship of scientific advisor to the defence minister to look into the issues of flight safety. The committee made 84 recommendations. Human error, bird hit and technical defect had been identified as the main causes of accidents by various courts of inquiry, Fernandes had said.
Noting that a variant called the MiG-21 Bis had been planned for upgrades, the minister added: “Although MiG-21 is an ageing aircraft, it remains fully airworthy consequent to regular maintenance checks and servicing procedure. Hence, MiG-21 will remain in the Air Force for some more time till it is gradually phased out, after its Total Technical Life is fully exploited.”
A contract for upgrading 125 MiG-21 Bis or Type 75 aircraft to MiG-21 Bison was signed with Russia on March 1, 1996, and their phase-out was deferred several times. This upgrade added a range of weapons, including the R-77 “beyond visual range” missile, on the Bison. The Bis variant has the R-73 close-range missiles. They would eventually remain in service till 2025. That the MiG-21 was in service this long speaks volumes for the procurement and modernisation process. The MiG-21 crossed the sixth decade with the IAF, being its sole operator, more as an operational necessity than a technological continuum.
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