Posted on 07/15/2010 5:28:14 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Four months after an Indian MiG-27 fighter bomber crashed, and all Indian MiG-27s were grounded, the aircraft have been cleared to fly again. The long delay was caused by fears that all the Russian made engines in these aircraft might have a common problem. This is not a new problem. The MiG-27, and Cold War era Russian warplanes in general, do not age well. India only has about a hundred MiG-27s still operational, and all of them were grounded for over a year (2005-6) when serious problems were discovered with the MiG-27s Russian designed engines. Things have since gotten better, but not by a whole lot. Last year, India decided to retire 60 percent of its 250 MiG-21 fighters over the next two years. The only ones remaining will be the upgraded MiG-21bis models. In the last few years, India believed it had cleared up many of the reliability problems with the MiG-21. Actually, they have, but the MiG-21 remains a dangerous aircraft to operate. India has been using MiG-21s since 1963, and has put about 800 into service. But 42 percent were subsequently lost due to accidents.
India lost 250 MiG-21s to accidents between 1991 and 2003. When consulted, Russia pointed out that India had insisted on manufacturing many of the spare parts needed to keep MiG-21s operational, and many of these parts were not manufactured to Russian specifications. While Russia does not have a reputation for making the highest quality equipment, their standards are often higher than India's. It's no secret that much of the military equipment made in India is pretty shabby by world standards.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
It doesn’t seem like Russian anything ages well.
Ping
Cheese, breads, some beers and the cutest collection of women you’ve ever seen. I’ve got an adopted daughter from Ukraine and I keep adding to my gun collection the older she gets. Potential suitors will need a full CIA background check before they are allowed to come over...forget about taking her out of the house.
“It’s no secret that much of the military equipment made in India is pretty shabby by world standards”
But...But...I thought all the engineers we get from India on those H1B Visas were superior to Americans.... You can’t move in my town without steping on an Indian software coder.
Holy Cr8p! I would rather go up with a handful of balloons! ;-)
LOL
Seems to me like I remember seeing where the Israelis are doing a big business upgrading Mig 21s for various countries. Maybe they need to consult them?
They tell me that crap will always remain crap no matter how one tries to get rid of the smell by repainting it, repackaging it, including hanging fancy mirror perfumers, etc, etc.......
Unlike the US, Russian combat aircraft design does not emphasize reliability, safety, operational readiness, and high sortie rates. Now, with Russia’s technological and industrial base in decline, their ability to produce modern combat aircraft is impaired.
Funny. we said that about the Japanese airplanes prior to Pearl Harbor. Chennault was trying to tell us we were wrong but nobody would listen.
Indian metallurgy is crap. Recycling on a huge scale with very poor quality control.
If you are making a automotive stamping die and the casted steel turns out to have voids it can be fixed. Not so with a piece of aluminum machined into an aircraft part.
The situation is improving but I can only imagine what it was like 5 or 10 years ago.
Because the US counterpart was so much better
Despite a poor reputation for safety, the F-104 was safer to fly than its Soviet equivalent, the MiG-21. And high performance Western combat aircraft continued to improve over the years while Russian combat aircraft remain plagued today by safety and reliability issues.
LOL...talk about a bad apple vs. a bushel of bad apples...
Goodness knows the Israelis have had a good record in the MiG disposal department...
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