IAF's Reliance on Aging MiG Fighters Impacts Squadron Strength and Highlights Need for Accelerated Indigenous Development

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has long relied on Russian-made MiG fighters, such as the MiG-21, MiG-23, and MiG-27, which formed the backbone of its fleet for much of the late 20th century.

While initially viewed as cost-effective solutions to bolster India's air power, these aircraft ultimately impacted the IAF's squadron strength due to their faster-than-anticipated aging and operational limitations.

The MiG-21, inducted in the 1960s, was lauded for its agility, ease of maintenance, and affordability. Despite upgrades, including the MiG-21 Bison variant, the aircraft struggled to keep pace with evolving air combat tactics that emphasized beyond-visual-range engagements and advanced electronic warfare capabilities. Operational mishaps increased, highlighting the limitations of extending the MiG-21's service life beyond its intended limits.

The MiG-23 and MiG-27, both featuring variable-sweep wing designs, faced significant challenges. This complex configuration, intended to optimize performance across different flight regimes, led to structural vulnerabilities and increased maintenance demands.

The MiG-23, primarily used for interception and strikes, suffered from limited agility and engine issues, leading to its premature retirement in the early 2000s. Similarly, the MiG-27, an attack aircraft, was plagued by engine reliability problems and wing malfunctions, forcing its retirement by 2019.

The premature retirement of the MiG-23 and MiG-27, combined with the aging MiG-21 fleet, created a significant shortfall in the IAF's squadron strength, which ideally requires 42 combat squadrons for optimal operational readiness. With the phasing out of these older jets, the IAF's squadron strength dwindled to approximately 30, impacting its force projection capabilities.

While the procurement of advanced fighters like the Rafale, Tejas, and Su-30MKI has partially mitigated this gap, the IAF is accelerating indigenous development programs to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.

To address the squadron deficit, the IAF is accelerating the procurement of the Tejas Mk1A, pushing for the rapid development of the Tejas MkII, and acquiring additional Rafale jets. The IAF is also exploring the acquisition of other multi-role fighter aircraft under the MRFA program.

The HAL Tejas, a domestically produced light combat aircraft, is expected to play a crucial role in rebuilding squadron strength and ensuring greater self-reliance in defence technology.

These initiatives are crucial to bolstering India's air power and ensuring its aerial defence capabilities remain robust in the face of evolving security challenges.

 

[Ronin]

Declining of Squadron strength could be easily replenished anytime, buying a super expensive 4th gen jet like Rafale would make us bankrupt, so unlike during last MMRCA it is better to buy something that we can afford so that we buy 114 jets for $20Bln and not 50-60 jets.

 

[abhinav srivastava]

Lack of timely procurements and under investment in R&D is the real drawback.

 

[M S Chatterji]

Not really. India has a mix of British, French fighter jets in its inventory. Why blame the Russians.

 

[Baiju Bhaskaran]

Declining of Squadron strength could be easily replenished anytime, buying a super expensive 4th gen jet like Rafale would make us bankrupt, so unlike during last MMRCA it is better to buy something that we can afford so that we buy 114 jets for $20Bln and not 50-60 jets.

According to you which aircraft other than Rafales is better. Su-34,35,57 etc. has quality issues. Even Russian Air force did not order those in big quantities. Euro fighter is manufactured by four different countries. It would be a big logistics nightmare for us to deal with four different unreliable governments during any emergency. Also Euro fighter is not cheap.Every two months we hear an F35 crashing in some part of the world. Rafales is not expensive. The aircraft only close 310 core per aircraft. It was the weapons package and infrastructure which made it expensive.

 

[Surfer]

According to you which aircraft other than Rafales is better. Su-34,35,57 etc. has quality issues. Even Russian Air force did not order those in big quantities. Euro fighter is manufactured by four different countries. It would be a big logistics nightmare for us to deal with four different unreliable governments during any emergency. Also Euro fighter is not cheap.Every two months we hear an F35 crashing in some part of the world. Rafales is not expensive. The aircraft only close 310 core per aircraft. It was the weapons package and infrastructure which made it expensive.

No countries that have bought EF Typhoons have any problem, they are offering 35% discount from the price of Rafale-F3 which is $350 Mln, in my opinion EF-Typhoon is also expensive even though it is much cheaper than Rafale F3, forget about F4 which is untouchable, the only jets that India can afford are either F21 or Gripen-E realistically for $18-20Bln if we wanted to buy 114 jets, may be add another 36 Rafale’s 15 years later when the backlog clears.

 

[Instant Karma]

Russian fighters are cheap to buy, operate and last long and easy to mantain and that is why they were selected. USA had a self embargo on themselves not to sell fighters to India. French were not cheap either. That left the Russian. Russian also gives TOT and local manufacturing which no weastern country gives.

 

[Ronin]

According to you which aircraft other than Rafales is better. Su-34,35,57 etc. has quality issues. Even Russian Air force did not order those in big quantities. Euro fighter is manufactured by four different countries. It would be a big logistics nightmare for us to deal with four different unreliable governments during any emergency. Also Euro fighter is not cheap.Every two months we hear an F35 crashing in some part of the world. Rafales is not expensive. The aircraft only close 310 core per aircraft. It was the weapons package and infrastructure which made it expensive.

Did I mention anything about the SU’s in my comment, we should be open to all the fighter jets and pick whichever gives more advantage to us, cost wise and TOT wise, we shouldn’t be one dimensional just looking at one jet.

 

[R. Singh]

Once GE start manufacturing GE engines in India we should make Tejas-AF-II as IAF require,we hope we should make 200+ Tejas-1A, and 300+ Tejas-AF-II and 169+ AMCA-MK-I before 2035 !

 

[Baiju Bhaskaran]

No countries that have bought EF Typhoons have any problem, they are offering 35% discount from the price of Rafale-F3 which is $350 Mln, in my opinion EF-Typhoon is also expensive even though it is much cheaper than Rafale F3, forget about F4 which is untouchable, the only jets that India can afford are either F21 or Gripen-E realistically for $18-20Bln if we wanted to buy 114 jets, may be add another 36 Rafale’s 15 years later when the backlog clears.

Till today EF typhoon was involved in only one combat mission in 2011 in Libya. At that time it needed to be supported by a Tornado aircraft for completing its mission. Also those countries that brought EF typhoons have different arrangements with European countries. Europeans will not support India during any emergency. Gripen and Tejas MK2 are almost the same. Father of F21, that is F16 cannot stand even Mig 21. Secondly US will not allow any Indian weapons to be integrated or neither they will set up any weapons manufacturing facility in India. So we will have to be always dependent on them for weapons. So US should be totally out of question. As far as Rafael is concerned, Indian weapons are already integrated into it. Also french weapons used in Rafael has manufacturing facility here. You are right in the case of Delivery time. But it can be solved, if we can agree with Dasault for an assembly line along with an MRO facility they are setting up here.

 

[NSR]

Until recent times, west was not trying to sell their fighters to India at all.

The effort began with MMRCA RFP and catastrophic failure by selecting Dassault as L1 bidder.
It sabotaged every possible path for local production of Rafale and its subassemblies.

France/Dassault plans as usual are to sell its high priced jets, and its own captive armaments, and of course penernnial maintenance contract.
It simply does not want to junk this stance even when it has plenty of orders.
The saga of Mirage-2000, Scorpenes, Rafales, etc points to same philosophy.

So India ended up with no more Rafale and forced to go for 36 Rafales plus foolish India Specific Enhancements.
Dassault knows that India needs fighterd so it is sitting prettily on Mt. Everest and making India meet its demands.

I will not be surprised if India chooses Gripen E or Eurofighter in the end.
What a journey of a decade and half.

 

[Kira]

While many of the issues highlighted in the article are true when it comes to single source procurement, I believe due to contemporary geopolitical and financial constraints of the time, India was right in going for Soviet jets like the MiG-21 considering they were cheap to produce and maintain and relatively simple to operate and train with.

As for the later Soviet models like the MiG-23/27, it has more to do with their designs and their envisioned roles (low level bombing and high speed interception) getting diminished over time due to availability of shoulder fired SAMs and the fact that better sensors and weapons made much of cold war era designs and roles obsolete.Note that Jaguars also face this conundrum ,although they are more maintenance and upgrade friendly.

Also, the IAF did in fact operate many British and later French designs ove time,but these were not as cheap as the Soviet alternatives, so could not be procured in large quantities like Mirage-2000 and now Rafale.

In fact the Mirage-2000 was ordered only to counter the recent acquisition of F-16 by the PAF in early 80s, while the MiG-29 was subsequently ordered just to mollify the Soviets later in the 80s.

Marut was a promising development, but was self sabotaged by Indian Badudom and misplaced self confidence due to reluctance in ordering a powerful British engine.

The crux of the matter being that not a single country is responsible for the mess that IAF finds itself in, but rather the inefficient and statist nature of Indian aviation industry due to the monopoly of HAL and business unfriendly policies of the GoI.

 

[Superpower Bharat]

Nope, it's not because of Russian jets, it's because of very very poor dicision making... Why not produce 100 mirages under TOT offered in late 80's.... Why MRFA is hanging from early 2000.... Count these factors also...

 

[GMR]

According to the then geopolitical scenario, acquisition of Russian jets can be justified.. what messed up the IAF later is the absence of strategy, planning & action by all stake holders, burocracy, politics in procurement process, shortsightedness & lack of initiative by all