NEW DELHI, July 23 (Alliance News): The Indian Air Force (IAF) has officially announced the retirement of its last MiG-21 fighter aircraft, marking the end of an era in Indian military aviation.
The final MiG-21 will be decommissioned on September 19 in a ceremony at Chandigarh Air Base, the same site where the first MiG-21 jets landed 61 years ago in April 1963.
This move concludes the MiG-21’s long and controversial service in the IAF, which began when the Soviet-made aircraft was inducted as part of India’s First Supersonic Squadron.
Originally shipped to Mumbai in an unassembled state, the aircraft were assembled by Soviet engineers and taken for test flights by Indian pilots.
Over the years, the MiG-21 played a significant role in numerous conflicts, including the Indo-Pak wars, but the aircraft also earned notoriety for its accident rate.
Out of 876 MiG-21s inducted into the IAF, approximately 490 crashed over the decades, resulting in the deaths of more than 170 pilots, according to Indian defense sources.
The upcoming retirement ceremony has been confirmed through official advertisements placed by the Indian Air Force in local newspapers. The event will take place at Chandigarh Air Base, underscoring the symbolic significance of bringing the aircraft’s service full circle to its initial arrival point.
At present, only two squadrons of the MiG-21 remain in the IAF. With their withdrawal, the number of operational fighter squadrons will drop to 29—the lowest in decades. This comes at a time when India faces strategic concerns on both its western and eastern fronts, requiring enhanced airpower capabilities.
According to the Cabinet Committee on Security, the IAF ideally requires 42 fighter squadrons—each comprising 16 to 18 aircraft—to effectively manage a potential two-front war scenario with both Pakistan and China. However, achieving that number has become more challenging with the delayed induction of the indigenously developed Tejas Mark-1A fighter jets.
The first batch of Tejas Mark-1A, originally scheduled for delivery in March 2024, has yet to materialize. Under current plans, at least 16 aircraft are supposed to be delivered annually to replace the aging MiG-21s and bolster India’s aerial capabilities.
As the MiG-21 prepares for its final flight into history, defense analysts view the event as both a moment of reflection and urgency for India to modernize its air force fleet and bridge capability gaps in an increasingly volatile regional security landscape.
