Warplanes: July 29, 2003

Archives

India has finally admitted that the MiG-21 is a dangerous and unreliable aircraft and should be replaced. In the last three years, 52 Indian MiGs (mostly MiG-21s) have crashed. That's some seven percent of the MiG-21 force. The problem the Indians have had is that they tried to use the MiG-21 like a Western aircraft. That is, MiG-21s were flown frequently to provide training for pilots. The MiG-21 was not designed to take that kind of heavy use, but as an aircraft that would be used in a short, intense war, with pilots flying simple maneuvers while being maneuvered by ground controllers. One reason why India refused to confront the MiG-21 safety issue was because the cost of replacing the MiGs was more than they could afford. 

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close