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I have never seen such a large and diverse mess of misinformation spouted and parroted with wild abandon about a military skirmish than what has come out of the short spate of Pakistani-Indian air battles that occurred in late February. But one aspect of those operations, in particular, has been so ridiculously mischaracterized by the media, so-called analysts, and the public in general, that the majority of narratives surrounding it have to be called out for what they are—total bullshit. During a Pakistani Air Force counterstrike operation on February 27th, one that came in response to India's air raid into...

China conducted the debut flight of an indigenously-built low-cost combat aircraft meant for export, state-run media reported Saturday. As a light attack aircraft or fighter jet, the FTC-2000G is a replacement for old models such as China's J-7 and the former Soviet Union's MiG-21. The FTC-2000G, developed for export by the State-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), made its debut flight on Friday in the south-west province of Guizhou, state-run China Daily reported. The FTC-2000G aircraft flew for about 16 minutes. More than 1,000 people, including AVIC executives and provincial leaders as well as ambassadors and military attaches from...

The Croatian Ministry of Defense demanded that Ukraine replace the poorly repaired MiG-21 aircraft with new fighters. According to the newspaper Jutarnji list, citing an informed source in the defense ministry, it is about replacing a minimum of four aircraft. The scandal with the "fake" MiGs flared up in Croatia in 2016, when it turned out that most of the 12 Ukrainian planes repaired by Ukrspetsexport were unsuitable for flights.

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — During the Cold War, the MiG-21 fighter and the Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle epitomized the might of the Soviet Bloc as it confronted the West in Europe. Although the MiG-21 — dubbed Fishbed by NATO — never saw combat in a NATO-Warsaw Pact war, the most iconic Soviet fighter of the jet age frequently tangled with American and other Western warplanes in hot wars in Vietnam, the Middle East and Africa. But nearly 60 years after it first entered front-line service with the Soviet air force — and 33 years since production ceased — the single-engine interceptor...

The Soviet MiG-21 is one of the most widely-produced and -exported fighter jets of all time. In the United States, the MiG-21 is perhaps best known for hunting American warplanes over Vietnam. The single-engine fighter is equally famous for its participation in various wars in the Middle East over the last half-century. You might therefore expect that the MiG-21’s first air-to-air kill occurred over Vietnam or the Middle East. In fact, the MiG’s first victim was a star-crossed oil-company plane blundering across Egypt. Egypt was the second Arab nation the USSR allowed to import MiG-21s. Cairo and Moscow signed a...

Small, fast and wickedly agile, the Soviet-designed MiG-21 was an extremely potent warplane. For two decades it formed the backbone of the Indian fighter force. We spoke to Air Marshal M Matheswaran (retd) about what it was like to fly and fight in the MiG-21. When did you first fly a MiG-21 and what were your first impressions? I began flying the MiG-21s in 1976. At that time it was the prime aircraft in the Air Force. Quite obviously it was great to selected to go into a MiG-21 squadron. First impressions – fascinating, sleek, and fast. What were the...

As we have reported previously, it is no secret the U.S. has made and still make use of captured or otherwise acquired Russian aircraft for test, evaluation and training purposes including the development of U.S. radars, countermeasures and early warning systems (earlier this year we published some really rare images of a Russian Su-27 Flanker dogfighting with a U.S. F-16 inside Area 51…) Has Russia done the same with U.S. aircraft? Absolutely. The RT video below contains some quite famous footage of a Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter formerly stationed at Bien Hoa Air Base in Vietnam being operated in Soviet...

Maj. Yohannes Woldemariam proudly posing in front of the first Northrop F-5A delivered to Ethiopia, in 1966. Photo via S.N. Which is better? The Northrop F-5E Tiger II or the Mikoyan i Gurevich MiG-21? There have been countless discussions of this question and, probably, at least as many answers. Over 15,000 of these two cheap, lightweight, simple-to-maintain and -operate fighters were produced and, over the time, they’ve served in more than 60 different air forces — some of which operated both of them. The usual story is that they never met in combat and thus the ultimate question about their mutual superiority...

Military aircraft can have notoriously short lifespans, especially during periods of technological ferment. The most elite aircraft of World War I could become obsolete in a matter of months. Things weren’t much different in World War II. And at the dawn of the jet age, entire fleets of aircraft became passé as technologies matured. The advanced fighters that fought in the skies over Korea became junk just a few years later. But a few designs stand the test of the time. The B-52 Stratofortress first flew in 1952, yet remains in service today. New C-130s continue to roll off the...

I the late 1980s, F-14 Tomcat pilot and Topgun instructor Paul Nickell found himself strapping into the cockpit of a brand new Navy jet that would never land on an aircraft carrier. Instead, it was built specifically to challenge the skills of the best fighter crews the Navy had to offer. It was a stripped down, up-engined, exotically painted variant of the already nimble F-16. General Dynamics built only 26 of them, and the fleet served less than a decade before being controversially retired, but the impression the jet made was legendary. For part one of a multi-part, in-depth series...

New Delhi: India's Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, which was several years in the making, has now caught the attention of foreign buyers, with Sri Lanka and Egypt evincing interest in the indigenously built fighter jet. Sri Lanka had recently rejected Pakistan's JF-17 aircraft built with Chinese help, while Egypt had last year signed a contract for 24 French-made Rafale fighter jets. The two countries are interested in the current version of the Tejas and not the upgraded one which will be rolled out later. However, state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the manufacturer of Tejas, is focusing on delivering the aircraft...

The Bulgarian air force on 18 December held a ceremony to mark the retirement of its last Mikoyan MiG-21 fighters. Involving the nation's last three serviceable examples – two single-seat MiG-21bis's and a two-seat MiG-21UM1 trainer – the event marked the end of regular flight operations, although the former pair will remain available to conduct quick reaction alert sorties until 31 December. The fighters will then be kept in storage at Graf Ignatievo air base, ready to be returned to airworthy status should the need arise. Bulgaria's MiG-21 fleet had originally been slated for retirement in 2012, but the type's...

When the F-15 was created, it was created to be a pure air-to-air fighter, with the philosophy of “not a pound for air-to-ground” guiding designers. So how did Israel end up turning their F-15s into deadly long-range multi-role strike aircraft well before the F-15E Strike Eagle became a reality? Here’s how. In Need Of A Game Changing Fighter Israel’s love affair with the F-15 began out of the need to procure a fighter that could trump the increasingly complex fighters that surrounding Arab states were amassing from Russian and French sources. Both the F-14 Tomcat and the F-15 Eagle were...

U.S. officials consider removing Castro regime from terror listU.S. officials are considering removing Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, even as Cuban allies continue to launch military attacks and trade for weapons. As part of President Barack Obama’s announcement in December that he would normalize relations with Cuba, Obama instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to review Cuba’s terror designation and issue a report in six months. While reports indicate that the administration is leaning toward removing Cuba from the terror list, such an action would conflict with the Cuban regime’s support for Colombian militants, Iran, and...

In 1989, the Chinese Chengdu Aerospace Corporation unveiled a major upgrade for its locally-made F-7 jet fighter, a licensed copy of the classic Soviet MiG-21. The new F-7 variant moved the engine air intake from the nose tip to the sides of the fuselage, making room in the nose for a more powerful radar. Twenty-one years later, this upgrade—now named JF-17 Thunder—is flying combat missions with the Pakistani air force, so far its sole user. Further enhanced with a new wing, a cutting-edge intake design and a new, more powerful engine, the JF-17 is Pakistan’s most important front-line fighter—and a...

The MiG-21 FL was the force multiplier that allowed other IAF aircraft to go in for the kill without having to watch their back during the 1971 War, thereby hastening the fall of the Pakistani military The MiG-21 may be the only aircraft in aviation history to have forced a nation to surrender. The devastating attack on the Governor’s House in Dhaka in East Pakistan by MiG-21s proved to be a turning point in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. India’s blitzkrieg strategy against the Pakistani military had brought the Indian Army to the outskirts of Dhaka within just nine days. Holed...

Draken International Mig-21's Delivered Coast To Coast (Source: Draken International; issued October 1, 2013) LAKELAND, Fla. --- Draken International, a leading provider of commercial air services, continues to rapidly build up its supersonic fleet with the delivery of twenty-five MiG-21 aircraft. With MiG-21 assembly operations taking place on both coasts, Draken International is able to provide a safe, reliable, real-world "red-air" asset to the Department of Defense and Test Pilot schools across North America. Draken International maintains the largest fleet of privately owned tactical aircraft in the world. The fleet is composed of over 50 ex-military aircraft including Douglas A-4K...

Investigators in Panama have found two MiG-21 fighter jets in cargo containers aboard a North Korean ship carrying weapons from Cuba. COLON, Panama — Panamanian investigators unloading the cargo of a seized North Korean ship that carried arms from Cuba have found the two MiG-21 fighter jets the Cuban government had said were on board, the government said Sunday. Alongside the two supersonic planes, originally produced by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s, officials found two missile radar systems on board the Chong Chon Gang, President Ricardo Martinelli told reporters in the Atlantic port of Colón. The discovery, which...

A MiG-21 combat aircraft flown by a Syrian pilot who defected to Jordan in June was found to have been upgraded back in Syria to carry chemical weapons and to fly without a pilot, the Yisrael Hayom daily reported on Tuesday. According to the report, U.S. experts who examined the plane believe Russian engineers helped convert the plane and that Syria has more of them in its air force. On June 21, Syrian pilot Hassan Hamada, who holds a rank equivalent to colonel, took off in his MiG-21 from al-Dumair military airport northeast of Damascus and flew to King Hussein...

Syrian pilot's defection in MiG-21 stirs Cold War memories Did you hear about the Syrian air force pilot who defected last week to Jordan in his MiG-21 fighter jet? Probably not. The defection was but a dim and fleeting blip on the international news radar. The world does not much care about an obscure Syrian pilot or a Russian-made jet designed more than 50 years ago. There was a time, however, when pilot defections were a big, hairy deal. Among the biggest and hairiest was in 1966, at the height of the Cold War, when the MiG-21 was the Soviet...