NEW DELHI: IAF still operates “obsolete” MiG-21s (IAF is the only air force in the world flying these aircraft).
Work has been going on in phases to upgrade the avionics of the 32-year-old, underpowered Jaguar aircraft.
Of the six squadrons operational, three have been upgraded to Darin II systems (the first one was upgraded in 2004); but the ones in Gorakhpur are Darin I. Pandey, who had been posted to Gorakhpur only recently, was earlier flying Darin II Jaguars.
He had just returned to flying after a long leave of absence; it seems he did not get enough conversion time to get into the new flying groove.
The IAF is short by 449 pilots but the required flying hours remaining same.
“The pressure is high. Half of the aircraft in the squadron are under maintenance.
We to clock same flying hours sanctioned earlier,” says a young airman.
Training time is short because of the lack of available training aircraft.
At present, the IAF has two squadrons of Britishbuilt advanced jet trainers (AJTs) but they are not enough to train all rookie pilots. So, half the pilots after their initial training are sent to MiG Operational Flight Training Units (MOFTU). The IAF lacks basic trainer aircraft. As its entire fleet of initial trainers HPT-32 was grounded two years back following a crashes and over 100 engine failures — around 11 flying cadets died. With the IAF spending close to Rs 10 crore in the making of each fighter pilot, the monetary loss, besides the immense loss to family members and the organisation, is huge.
According to the Parliamentary Panel’s report on Defence, “We have issues of AJT, which we did not have a number of years. So, our ab initio pilots were going straight from basic trainers to intermediate trainer and then straight on to the MiG-21 class of aircraft which was a tremendous jump.” The MiG-21 crashes are a mix of shoddy training and defective spare parts. The IAF is forced to fly them at least till 2017. “Because of the delay in acquisition of AJTs and LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) we cannot write MiG-21s off,” said former IAF vice chief Air Marshal (Retd) P K Barbora, who has flown MiGs in his young days.
Retiring five MiG squadrons would mean that IAF—which only has a fighter strength of 33.5 fighter squadrons against the sanctioned strength of 39.5—would lose its conventional edge over adversaries.
The Government is dragging its feet over acquiring enough fighter jets and training aircraft because the procurement process is taking too long—over 10 years—the first one would be inducted only around 2020. Light combat aircraft being developed indigenously by the DRDO haven’t joined the fighting ranks even 27 years after the approval was given.
Meanwhile, more and more young pilots keep losing their lives.