India retires more old MiGs

From Defence Talk

Indian Air Force Retires More Old MiGs

Agence France-Presse | Mar 21, 2007

India’s air force bid farewell March 20 to some of its last active Soviet-era jets, which are set to be replaced by new hardware from either Russia, the U.S. or Europe.

Four of its five remaining MiG-23 jets, which have top speeds of up to 2,500 kilometers (1,150 miles) an hour, staged a fly-by from an air base in western India before the entire squadron was declared retired, an air force spokesman said.

The planes — referred to by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as "Floggers" — were bought from the Soviet Union in the early 1980s during a frenetic arms race with South Asian archrival Pakistan.

"The last flight of these aircraft is special as they were among the only two units to have operated the swing-wing variants of the MiG-23 in countering possible threats from Pakistan’s F-16s," the air force said.

Air force chief S.P. Tyagi, top military brass and diplomats were on hand at the Jamnagar air base in Gujarat which was India’s key aviation base during its 1971 war with Pakistan, for the final fly-by of the supersonic jets, witnesses said.

"Although we are mothballing them, they remain one of the most powerful single-engined fighter aircraft in the world to date and perhaps one of the most feared," a MiG-23 pilot told AFP by telephone from Jamnagar.

In April 2006, the air force scrapped its 30-year-old Soviet-era MiG-25 spy planes, citing a shortage of spares.

India still retains an aging fleet of some 700 MiG-21 fighters, some of which date back to the 1960s but is hunting for replacements amid frequent crashes and warnings that the country is lagging behind Pakistan.

Contenders for an order for 126 fighter planes potentially worth US$9 billion dollars include U.S. giants Lockheed Martin and Boeing, the Russian Aircraft Corp., France’s Dassault Aviation, Sweden’s Saab and the Eurofighter consortium.