Earlier this month, yet another Russian-origin MIG-21 fighter crashed in the desert state of Rajasthan, killing a young trainee pilot and once more underlining what is perhaps the worst crash rate of any combat aircraft in operation anywhere in the world. Not for nothing, the aircraft have been dubbed flying coffins. But in a bigger sense, their continued use is a depressing reflection on India’s slow and torturous defense modernization process to procure new fighter jets.
The elderly MIGs have formed the backbone of the Indian Air Force’s air strike capability for almost five decades, since the days when India led the world’s non-aligned movement and bought most of its military equipment from the Soviet Union, which disintegrated, leaving the Indian air force with a scarcity of spare parts. Technical snags and shoddy servicing also have resulted in many MIGs going down, killing pilots and severely disabling the Indian Air Force’s attack capability.
According to official figures, of the 793 MiG-21s inducted into the India Air Force since 1963, more than 350 have been lost in accidents, killing about 170 pilots. A recent report by the defense ministry has acknowledged that most of the MIG crashes have been attributed to outdated technology that relies on manual judgment rather than computer-driven, automated responses that more modern aircraft feature.
