India Decommissions Last MiG-23 Ground Support Aircraft / Indian Air Force To Retire MiG-23 Fighters

India Decommissions Last MiG-23 Ground Support Aircraft / Indian Air Force To Retire MiG-23 Fighters

(NSI News Source Info) NEW DELHI - March 7, 2009: India decommissioned on Friday its last MiG-23 Flogger fighter-bomber, a Soviet era aircraft in service with the Indian air force for 28 years, a Defense Ministry official said. "It was the best ground support aircraft we have ever had," the source said.

Indian Air force. All four squadrons of IAF have been phased out : MiG-23BN ground attack aircraft on 6th March 2009 & MiG-23MF air defence interceptor in 2007. The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (NATO reporting name: "Flogger") is a swing-wing fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau in the Soviet Union and is considered to belong to the "Third Generation" aircraft category along with similar-aged Russian-produced fighters like the MiG-25 "Foxbat". It was the first Soviet fighter with a look-down/shoot-down radar and beyond visual range missiles, and the first MiG production fighter plane to have intakes at the sides of the fuselage. Production started in 1970 and reached large numbers with over 5,000 aircraft built. Today the MiG-23 remains in limited service with various export customers. India's fighter fleet has boasted 70 MiG-23BN and MiG-23MF aircraft since the beginning of the 1980s. The planes were used extensively in military encounters with neighboring Pakistan. During the Kargil War with Pakistan in 1999, MiG-23s played an important role in supporting an Indian ground offensive in the Kashmir region. However, steep maintenance costs and the lack of spare parts for the outdated aircraft led to its decommissioning. India is replacing the old MiG-21 and MiG-23 aircraft with new Su-30MKI multi-role fighters, which are produced under a Russian license by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and entered service with the IAF in 2002. India signed a deal with Russia to manufacture 140 Su-30 fighters in late 1990s, and ordered 40 additional Su-30s in 2007. With a strength of approximately 170,000 personnel and 1,130 combat aircraft in active service, the Indian Air Force is the fourth largest in the world.