NEW DELHI – The Indian Air Force’s last remaining squadron of upgradedMiG-27UPGs will make its final flight from Jodhpur Air Base in Rajasthan,northwestern India, in late December, IndiaToday has reportedlink,citing an official source.
According to the source, the planes, belonging to 29 Scorpio Squadron, willmake their last flight at an official ceremony on December 27.
The decommissioning follows the retirement of two squadrons of MiG-27s atthe Hashimara Air Base in Bengal in 2017.
Hindustan Aeronautics ended up building 165 of the ground attack planes,christening them the ‘Bahadur’ (‘Valiant’) , and upgrading them toMiG-27UPGs starting in 2004.
According to IndiaToday, the planes played a “crucial role” in the KargilWar of 1999, during which India regained possession of the Kargil districtin Kashmir after Pakistani troops disguised as Kashmiri fighters attemptedto infiltrate the Indian side of the Line of Control border. India lost oneMiG-27 in the fighting as the result of engine failure.
Before their retirement, the planes, equipped with a powerful engine andvariable geometry wing design, were used by seven separate squadrons and ascombat training aircraft, and served as the backbone of the Indian AirForce’s ground attack capability throughout much of the 90s and 2000s. Theplanes were equipped with an assortment of precision missiles, rockets andTV and laser-guided bombs. In their final years of service, the planesbegan to show their age, with India losing over a dozen MiG-27s in crashes[image: Mig-27]
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Once India retires its planes, Kazakhstan will be the last country withMiG-27s in its inventory. Russia grounded its fleet of MiG-27s in the early1990s due to budget cuts following the end of the Cold War. The planes alsopreviously served in several air forces of the former Warsaw Pact, as wellas Sri Lanka, Cuba, Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Algeria.
India has been a major client and partner to the Russian military aircraftindustry for decades, and has signed billions of dollars’ worth ofcontracts with Russian aircraft makers for fighters, bombers, helicoptersand other aircraft. In addition to buying Russian-built planes, India hastaken to buying Russian products on export license, and upgrading andotherwise tweaking the aircraft to improve their suitability for use underlocal conditions.
Soviet and/or Russian aircraft in India’s arsenal include the MiG-21 Bison,the MiG-29UPG, the Sukhoi Su-30MKI, the Beriev A-50 AEWACS, the IlyushinIl-78 aerial refueling craft, the Ilyushin Il-76 strategic airlifter, theMil Mi-17 utility helicopter, and the Mil Mi-24 attack chopper, amongothers.
