The MiG-21 fighter of the Indian Air Force is known for its frequent failures and high pilot mortality, and it has even been dubbed "flying coffin" and "widow maker". But why hasn't the Indian Air Force let this outdated fighter out of service? The Indian media even mentioned China again...
The Indian Zee news website said on the 19th that despite having more advanced fighter jets such as the Russian Su-30MKI, the French " Rafale " and the Indian-made "Glorious", the Indian Air Force is still continuing Use a Soviet-era MiG-21 fighter. In 2012, Indian Defense Minister Antony said in parliament that nearly half of the 872 MiG-21 series fighter jets delivered to the Indian Air Force had crashed, killing 171 pilots, 39 civilians and 8 other service personnel.
But the report analysis said that the Indian Air Force has its own reasons to continue to use this outdated fighter. The first reason is related to China.
reported that in order to deal with the joint threat from China and Pakistan , the Indian Air Force needs 42 squadrons to meet the demand. But currently the Indian Air Force has only 32 squadrons. Among them, there are a large number of relatively old fighter jets such as MiG-21, "Puma" and "Phantom 2000". If they are all retired, it will cause a serious shortage of fighter jets in the Indian Air Force. "For comparison, China's western theater has nearly 200 modern fighter jets, while Pakistan has about 350 fighter jets." Therefore, in order to cope with the air superiority of China and Pakistan, the Indian Air Force must maintain a sufficient number of active fighter jets, which means that the current seven MiG-21 fighter squadrons will continue to serve for some time. The old driver of
believes that the Indian Air Force is already first-class in overall strength. Whether it is the Su-30MKI or the "Rafale" fighter , it also ranks first in Asia in terms of performance and number of equipment. However, India emphasized like a maddening "must have the ability to fight against China and the Pakistan Air Force at the same time". Regardless of whether the Indian Air Force really has this capability and how many years it will have to wait, this kind of army building thinking is destined to pay an additional price: in order to maintain the flight capability of the old fighter jets, the Indian Air Force spends a lot of money. Trained pilots had to risk taking these outdated fighter jets into the air. Looking at the list of pilots lost in flight accidents by the Indian Air Force in recent years, it can be seen that a considerable number of them are experienced veterans. lost in a flight accident. The second reason cited by the
Indian media is that the MiG-21 fighter jets currently in service in the Indian Air Force are actually a new and upgraded version, which is also "safer", with the latest avionics and weapon mount capabilities. "The main reason for so many MiG-21 crashes is not the outdated aircraft, but is influenced by a variety of factors, mainly the excessive dispatch of MiG-21s," the report said.
According to reports, the MiG-21 is the most deployed model of the Indian Air Force, and the aircraft can also be used as a trainer for novice pilots. This causes it to crash more than any other model. The approach "makes sense because the MiG-21 is at the end of its service life and other aircraft are too expensive for training purposes," the report said.
The old driver can't help it - after all, the Indian Air Force still pays more attention to expensive aircraft than to pilot safety. As everyone knows, how the weapons perform, it also depends on who is in their hands... Three seconds of silence for the Indian pilots...
The third reason is that the delivery of new aircraft of the Indian Air Force is too slow. As early as the 1980s, India launched the domestic "Tejas" light fighter program to replace the MiG-21 fighter. But it did not fly until 2001, and only 2 squadrons have been formed so far, resulting in the MiG-21 having to delay its service period. The Indian Air Force originally planned to introduce 126 Rafale fighters from France. They were also expected to promote the retirement of the MiG-21 on time, but in the end, India only purchased 36 Rafale fighters, and the number of squadrons equipped was reduced from 7 to 2 One - Indian Air Force MiG-21 had to carry the infamy of "flying coffin" to continue serving.
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