MiG-21s well past their retirement age: Here's why IAF needs new jets

1. MiG-21s well past their retirement age: Here's why IAF needs new jets As aircraft age, the number of failures due to the ageing of their functional equipment or system components grows Current Affairs:-The MiG-21 Bison that Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was flying when he was brought down by a Pakistan Air Force F-16 was well past its retirement age, and kept bursting at the seams with rehashed redesigns and administration life

2. expansions, specialists have told IndiaSpend. The clumsy Russian-made MiGs- - 482 of which were lost to mishaps among 1971 and April 2012, averaging almost 12 every year- - were first drafted into the Indian Air Force in the mid-1960s. These were to resign by the mid-1990s, however were moved up to Bison standard, even as progressive variations were drafted until the 1980s. "India is the last nation on the planet with a genuine airforce to in any case fly the MiG 21s," Pushpinder Singh, establishing supervisor of the Vayu Aerospace and Defense Review, told IndiaSpend. "The poor young fellow who flew the air ship against a F-16 didn't stand an opportunity… [He] is currently a wartime captive and it is a national disgrace that in 2019 we are as yet flying these planes." As air ship age, the quantity of disappointments because of the maturing of their utilitarian gear or framework segments develops. As framework parts frequently hold a more extended life potential than the guaranteed life of a flying machine, subsystem or administration life expansion programs are completed to expand the utilization of their gear. Be that as it may, each air ship has its life expectancy and the MiG-21s achieved the finish of theirs two decades back, Singh said. After various redesigns and administration life expansions, India will start eliminating the MiG-21s alongside the MiG-23 and MiG-27 from 2022. Continue Reading