The old variants of MIG-21 fighter plane - also called “flying coffin” after many of them crashed and killed their pilots - will be phased out of the Indian Air Force
NAGPUR: The old variants of MIG-21 fighter plane - also called “flying coffin” after many of them crashed and killed their pilots - will be phased out of the Indian Air Force (IAF) over the next year and a half.
“Another year and a half, and the old variants of MIG-21 won’t be with us, except for Byson, which is an upgraded version of MIG-21, and MIG-29, which is being upgraded,” chief of the air staff, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, said on Monday. “The MIG-23s, too, are being phased out of service.”
In Nagpur to attend the annual commanders’ conference at the IAF Maintenance Command headquarters, Major told a press conference that the IAF would be a very different force after its modernisation is completed in 7-8 years. New aircraft will be inducted, and new radars and air defence and missile systems will be installed.
The conference is to discuss induction of new aircraft, human resources and training, cyber security and ways to overcome hurdles to the indigenisation and reverse-engineering processes.
The Air Force has faced problems in procuring some spares from the original equipment manufacturers in Russia, but the offset clause in the defence procurement policy of 2008 will help it overcome the difficulty very soon. The Maintenance Command has brought out its new maintenance manual that’ll help private vendors understand the needs of the IAF, Major said.
Over the past 10 years, the command, with its vendor support base, has ensured that the IAF got mandatory spares from within the country. However, the force is still dependent on global players for some high-end sophisticated spares, Major said.
He said the technical evaluation of the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) has been done. The IAF hoped to start its flight evaluation by February 2009. India plans to acquire 126 MMRCAs and three to four global players were competing for the contract, he said.
Major, who visited China recently, said IAF is “exploring possibilities” of joint exercises with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (the Chinese air force) in two years.
The IAF carried out a joint air-space management experiment with the civil aviation department for 10 days in the southern region, he said. “It has given us impetus to try it out at other places,” he said. The IAF had submitted to the Centre a paper on joint air space management mechanism a few years ago.
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