For military aviators in particular and aviation enthusiasts like me in general, the phasing out of the legendary and iconic MiG-21 fighter aircraft by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on 31^st October 2023 from one of the remaining three squadrons flying this aircraft type will be a nostalgic moment. Inducted in 1963, MiG-21s completed 60 years of glorious and eventful service with the IAF during 2023. 

Certain interesting facts about this fighter jet help one to understand why a legendary and iconic status is accorded to the MiG-21.  Here was a fighter who apart from successfully gaining an upper hand over the military air power of the USA in the thick of the Cold War, more so particularly in Vietnam had a superior kill ratio in its favour - North Vietnamese claim 164 air victories! – it also demonstrated the then Soviet’s ability to match and thereby counter the technical advancement of the NATO powers. Mikoyan-Gurevich’s MiG-21 fighter codenamed Fishbed by NATO was a delta wing fighter that sent shock waves among the NATO powers when the first blood was drawn in the Vietnam War.  It took the US a considerably long time and effort to reverse engineer the highly agile and supersonic MiG-21 thanks to the defection of an Iraqi Air Force pilot along with his MiG-21 to Israel.  Codenamed ‘Operation Diamond’ and engineered by Israel’s Mossad, the Iraqi pilot landed his MiG-21 in Israel in 1966 well after nine years of MiG-21 taking to the skies.  The defected jet was loaned to the United States by Israel in 1968. 

The MiG-21 has served in the air forces of more than 60 countries and is the most produced supersonic fighter jet with close to 11,500 jets produced!  This fighter had broken all the flying records at its peak when it joined the services of the Indian Air Force in 1963.  It had quickly catapulted as the most exported and feared fighter of that era and the future from then on.   The Indian Air Force itself had sourced an astounding 874 MiG-21s since 1963 out of which 657 were license-produced by our own Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. 

From the 1965 Indo-Pak War to date, the MiG-21 in the IAF service has been an extremely potent weapon and a thorn in the enemy’s flesh and psyche.  Worth remembering achievements of the MiG-21s in service with the IAF are:

1. 1971 Indo-Pak Air War:

The MiG-21 played a commendable role during the 1971 India-Pakistan war both in the Eastern and the Western sectors.The 1971 war witnessed the first supersonic air combat in the sub-continent wherein an IAF MiG-21 shot down a much-hyped Pakistan Air Force (PAF) F-104A Starfighter.By the end of the war IAF MiG-21s, apart from claiming seven F-104A Starfighters, two F-86 Sabres, two Shenyang F-6, a Mirage-III EP and a C-130 Hercules (the numbers may differ slightly across various accounts), had also destroyed strategically important targets.In the Eastern sector alone, the MiG-21s had flown 626 sorties during the 14-day war next only to the Hunter aircraft.

2. Precision strike on the Governor’s house at Dacca – 1971 India-Pakistan war:

Through various intelligence inputs, the Indian Air Force learnt that a cabinet meeting was scheduled around noon on 14^th December 1971 at Governor Dr. A M Malik’s official residence.The proposed meeting, as per the Indian military’s analysis, had the capacity to decide on the future course of the war – to prolong the war or to decide on a ceasefire rather than a surrender.The decision-making capability of the East Pakistan administration had to be removed and for it to be achieved, the proposed meeting had to be hit.The Governor’s house became the target for an impending strike. The receipt of the intelligence input, the timing of the scheduled meeting and the subsequent precision strike need to be noted carefully for, it demonstrated the operational readiness and the speed at which the IAF fighters acted.While the intelligence input was received at around 10:45 AM that a meeting at the Governor’s house was scheduled at 11:30 AM, the IAF’s MiG-21s were airborne at 10:55 AM with an estimated 20 minutes time or so to the target, the Governor’s house.

Six MiG-21s in two waves of four and two each, hit the Governor’s house – in fact one hit right on the dome below which the meeting was scheduled! - in a precision strike that later paved the way for an early surrender of the Pakistani forces and an eventual Indian victory.A total of 192 rockets were fired which decimated the Governor’s house.The Governor and his cabinet fled to the International Hotel, a Red Cross-designated neutral zone nearby from where he resigned.The Pakistan forces surrendered which shortened the war, thereby preventing a Berlin like street-by-street bloody fighting.

3. Operation Safed Sagar - Kargil, 1999:

The Golden Arrows squadron based at Bhatinda operating MiG-21s since 1975 was one of the squadrons to fly the maximum number of strike and reconnaissance missions during Operation Safed Sagar.Further, apart from bombing enemy entrenchments at 18,000 feet on the Kargil heights, according to the report titled- ‘Airpower at 18,000’ released by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, innovative real-time adaptation by the IAF occurred when MiG-21 pilots lacking sophisticated onboard navigation suites resorted to the use of stopwatches and GPS receivers in their cockpits for conducting night interdiction bombing.Thus MiG-21 jets were modified to suit every requirement of the IAF through innovative methods.The jets once again delivered.

4. PAF Atlantique aircraft incident – August 1999:

Immediately after the 1999 Kargil war, an Atlantique maritime patrol aircraft belonging to the Pakistan Naval Air Arms breached Indian air space on two instances on the morning of 10^th August 1999.This breach violated the 1991 air agreement between India and Pakistan.The aircraft was shot down by a formation of two MiG-21s after the intruding aircraft refused to land and instead executed a maneuver perceived as threatening.

5. PAF F-16 shot down – February 2019: 

In response to the IAF’s daring surgical air strikes on Balakot terrorist camps deep inside Pakistan, the PAF launched Operation Swift Retort, albeit unsuccessful.In the air battle that ensued over the skies of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, an IAF MiG-21 shot down a PAF F-16 Falcon fighter jet, which was much more advanced when compared to MiG-21s.This would probably be the most prized kill ever achieved by an IAF MiG-21.

No wonder then that the MiG-21s were a commander’s choice at the forward bases. At one point in time during the 1990s, 20 squadrons of the IAF were operating the MiG-21s.  Be it instilling the fear factor in the enemy, its agility, performance, record or its battle worthiness, it was truly a remarkable fighter.  It would do a world of good if the IAF officially publishes the operational history of MiG-21s in its service.

It is quite disturbing to note that the same fighter has been much maligned owing to frequent crashes involving loss of lives, forgetting the very fact that this fighter too, like all, had a useful life, which by now has been extended considerably.

To conclude there can be no better a tribute than the one offered by Air Chief Marshal Anil Yeshwant Tipnis (Retd) in his essay titled: “My Fair Lady – Ode to the MiG-21” -

My parting lines on the demonising of the MiG-21 are thus: Heed not the barbed taunt of “widow-maker” my lovely filly, for you are in fact, a man-maker of boys. Were I to go down with you, my soul would have been tortured to have anyone call you my “flying-coffin”; but my soul would have been mercifully becalmed would that our joint epitaph proudly proclaimed: “In life you offered this pilot a seat more coveted than that of a king’s; in death you took an air-warrior to his glorious Valhalla.” But I live, so I hope that I am there 10 years from now, along with your many disciples and admirers and our progeny and theirs too, to sing your praises for your half-a-century of relentless, superlative service to the nation and the Indian Air Force. Others may continue to call you vulgar names when there is a choice of prettier ones, as some that I have used, but there be many more, more appropriate, but inadequately so. One day surely you must rest your hard driven limbs, but to each one of us whom you took to your bosom, whether in service or in retirement, you will ever remain “My Fair Lady”!

The author is only an aviation enthusiast and not an aviation expert

Image source: X post (formerly Twitter) of the Indian Air Force - @IAF_MCC

References

1. Eagles Over Bangladesh: The Indian Air Force in the 1971 Liberation War by P. V. S. Jagan Mohan and Samir Chopra, published by Harper Collins
2. 1971: Stories of Grit and Glory from the: Stories of Grit and Glory from the Indo-Pak War by Ian Cardozo, published by Penguin eBury Press
3. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/indias-1st-supersonic-jet-mig-21-completes-60-years-in-indian-air-force-484919
4. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/indian-air-force-mig-21-squadron-based-in-rajasthans-barmer-phased-out-su-30mki-inducted-2456375-2023-11-01
5. https://airpowerasia.com/2020/06/16/the-iconic-mig-21-great-design-most-produced-supersonic-jet-fearsome-reputation-unending-service/
6. https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2019/02/27/iaf-mig-21-fighters-pakistan.html
7. Official history of the 1971 India Pakistan War accessed at: https://www.bharat-rakshak.com/ARMY/history/1971war/280-war-history-1971.html
8. https://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/history/kargil/golden-arrows/
9. https://www.firstpost.com/india/how-mig-21-tilted-the-1971-war-in-indias-favour-with-its-131-success-ratio-10212001.html
10. https://carnegieendowment.org/files/kargil.pdf
11. https://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/history/kargil/safed-sagar-overview/
12. https://www.eurasiantimes.com/indian-pilot-russian-jet-french-aircraft-how-iafs-mig-21-shot/
13. https://theprint.in/defence/8-pieces-of-clinching-evidence-that-show-how-iafs-abhinandan-shot-down-a-pakistani-f-16/278752/
14. My Fair Lady - Ode to the MiG-21 by Air Chief Marshal A Y Tipnis accessed at:  https://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/aircraft/current/mig-tipnis/