The Story Of India’s MiG-27 And Its Final Goodbye

During December 2019, the Indian Air Force (IAF) plans to retire the last few Soviet-designed MiG-27 Flogger fighter-bombers. With this, come the end of 38 years of MiG-27 operations in India. This also leaves the Kazakh air force as the last operator of the 1970s-vintage, swing-wing warplane.

The last MiG-27 unit of New Delhi’s No. 29 Squadron is based in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Other two MiG-27 squadrons shuttered in 2016.

The MiG-27 probably won’t be missed by the pilots and planners. This speedy but volatile airplane is a ground-attack derivative of the MiG-23 interceptor. Once, when the U.S. Air Force test pilots flew a captured MiG-23 under the circumstances of the once-secret Constant Peg program. They were literally afraid of the plane since it had a tendency to explode in mid-flight.

John Manclark, a commander of Constant Peg during the mid-1980s, said about the MiG-23, “It would accelerate until it blew up. Although, the limit was 720 to 710 knots, but pilots would look down inside and see they were going 850 to 880.”

The first of the 165 locally-assembled MiG-27s acquired by the Indian Air Force starting in 1981. It was flown in combat during the Kargil War between India and Pakistan in 1999. The powerful MiG-27 with its R-29 engine at low altitude could accelerate to a top speed of around Mach one.

But the plane said to be complex and unsafe by the Western people. It declared that even other Soviet types were safer to fly than the MiG-27. The IAF lost at least 10 percent of its MiG-27s in crashes.

The worst experience was that of Sri Lanka’s. Their air force acquired from Ukraine a batch of six MiG-27s alongwith a MiG-23 trainer in the late 1990’s. At that time, the Sri Lankan government was at war with the Tamil Tigers rebel group. It wanted a fast fighter-bomber that also could operate at low level.

The MiG-27 arguably proved to be a poor choice for the Lankans. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the country’s wartime defense secretary, later was accused of accepting bribes in exchange for approving the MiG buy. A newspaper editor then killed in an assassination after reporting on the allegedly corrupt fighter deal.

The initial six MiG-27s, alongwith a follow-on batch of six Floggers and one trainer that Sri Lanka bought in 2000, performed poorly in its service. It even flew disappointedly when tried by experienced Ukrainian mercenary pilots.

In 2001, U.S. advisors assessed the Sri Lankan air force’s No. 12 Squadron, flying the MiG-27s and found it wanting. A newspaper reported, “Air force leaders never bothered to procure the required weapons systems/ammunition for them. On the basis of testimony of both army and [air force] personnel, the U.S. pointed out the failure on the part of No 10 [flying Israeli-made Kfirs] and No. 12 squadrons to destroy targets.”

Fore the details please visit: Indian Defence Times