The MiG-21 - that redoubtable warhorse of the Indian Air Force - will be phased out of active service by September, to be replaced by the newer and nimbler Tejas Mk1A fighter jets.
The IAF has 36 MiG-21 planes left in its arsenal, a far cry from the nearly 900 - of which around 660 were built in India - that so successfully protected the nation's skies and territories.
The MiG-21 first entered service in 1963, on a trial basis. The Russian-made jet went on to form the backbone of the Air Force till the mid-2000s, when the Sukhoi Su-30MKIs were brought in.
The final variant to serve India - the ones which will now be phased out - was the Bison, which featured upgraded electronics and better navigation and communications systems.
In October 2023, MiG-21 fighter aircraft from the No 4 squadron flew for one last time over the town of Barmer in Rajasthan, a 'farewell and thank you for the memories' moment it shared with the planes taking up its role in the state that borders Pakistan, the also Russian-made Sukhoi.
"We will stop flying the MiG-21 fighter aircraft by 2025 and will replace them with the LCA Mark-1A," then-Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari had said then.
READ | "We Will Stop Flying MiG-21 Fighters By 2025," Says Air Force Chief
In July 2022 the Air Force had confirmed a three-year timeline to phase out the four remaining MiG-21 squadrons still in service. The plan also involves phasing out the MiG-29s by 2027.
The phasing out of the MiG-21 fleet comes after numerous crashes involving the aging plane, including an incident in Rajasthan in May 2023 in which the three villagers were killed.
The MiG-21 in question took off from the Suratgarh Air Force base for a routine exercise when it crashed near Bahlol Nagar in Rajasthan's Hanumangarh after a 'technical snag'.
The Air Force grounded the entire MiG-21 fleet after that accident.
Among the earlier squadrons to have been phased out was the Srinagar-based No 51, which took part in Operation Safed Sagar during the Kargil war. It also repulsed Pakistan's retaliatory action in February 2019, a day after airstrikes in Balakot targeted terrorist camps in Pak.
Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, now a Group Captain, who shot down a Pak jet in aerial combat before he was forced down too and was captured, was from that squadron.
Meanwhile, India is also developing a fifth-generation stealth fighter that will vault the country into an elite club - one of only three other countries with such advanced fighter aircraft.
NDTV Explains | Everything About India's New 5th-Generation Stealth Fighter
The multirole Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft will be a single-seat, twin-engine jet with advanced stealth coatings and internal weapons bays, and the plane - most of which will made in-house, at Bengaluru's Aeronautical Development Agency - will cost over Rs 15,000 crore.
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