End of an era - Last Mig-21 Lancer flights

[Wotan]

Ultimele zboruri ale MiG-21 LanceR ale României: Toate drumurile duc la Bacău. Zboruri simultane către Bacău - ultima misiune a MiG-21

Luni, 15 mai, vor avea loc ultimele zboruri cu aeronavele MiG-21 LanceR din dotarea Forțelor Aeriene Române, acestea urmând a fi scoase din serviciu. Și, într-o ultimă misiune, toate drumurile vor duce la Bacău.

www.defenseromania.ro

It was suposed at the end of the nineties to be an interim solution. Still, 20 years later, they still serve.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMXywtXlUC4&t=2s


Affectionatly called by its pilots "the pipe" or "the Clothes iron".

First variants of Mig-21 entered in the Romanian Air Force service in 1962. In 15 may they are to be retrated from active service So, with all variants until the Lancer modernisation, a span of over 60 years.

 

[paralay]

I'm curious, what is the real resource of Soviet aircraft?

 

[Wotan]

The aircrafts from the Lancer program were produced between 1969 and 1975, so half a century old.

Aviation Photography - Romanian Air Force - Fortele Aeriene Române MiG-21 LanceR

By the retirement, some interviewed pilots said that one issue was mantining the radars (israeli EL/M-2032 produced some 25 years ago). So, with careful nurturing, even soviet aircrafts can have a long lifespan. Romania was able to perform the maintenance, modernisations and life time extensions internally, without dependence from russians.

Aerostar SA - Performance through Professionalism

This is one main reason why the Mig-21 was preferred to the more modern Mig-29 for upgrade.

 

[Flyaway]

What are they being replaced by?

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

F-16s. First were second hand from Portugal, the latest batch from Norway.

 

[Wotan]

Studies made several years ago for a conformal fuel tank and other modifications for the Lancer

Calitatea e si in numar: Strike Lancer - Romania Military

This entry is part 14 of 14 in the series Armament de aviatie fabricat in Romania… sau in mix-uri „Hi-Lo” vorba anglo-saxonului! Inainte sa ne grabim si sa incepem sa retragem anumite categorii de tehnica… poate ar fi bine sa ne gandim de doua ori! Subiectul de astazi – episodul… Continue reading

www.rumaniamilitary.ro

This would have allowed for the Lancer to be used primarily as a strike aircraft.

 

[Wotan]

There was a discussion about donating them to Ukraine, but they aparently refused.

Romania Should Give The MiG-21 Lancers It Just Grounded To Ukraine

Romania just grounded its fleet of highly-upgraded MiG-21 Lancer-Cs, which could give Ukraine a quick boost in air combat capability.

www.twz.com

Aparently they don`t longer have pilots trained for the Mig-21, and all the pilots are beeing prepared for the F-16.

 

[publiusr]

That’s a statement I never thought I would ever hear…

 

[Wotan]

SInce long time they are using only Mig-29 and Su-27 as fighters, which they inherited from the Soviet Air Force.

 

[totoro]

Mig-21 is pretty much done everywhere. At least for countries with any sort of a half serious budget. Even China is on schedule to retire their J7 by this year or so.

 

[Archibald]

According to Wikipedia (for what its worth): 11496 Mig-21s and 2400 J-7s built.

 

[TinWing]

There was a discussion about donating them to Ukraine, but they aparently refused.

Romania Should Give The MiG-21 Lancers It Just Grounded To Ukraine

Romania just grounded its fleet of highly-upgraded MiG-21 Lancer-Cs, which could give Ukraine a quick boost in air combat capability.

www.twz.com

Aparently they don`t longer have pilots trained for the Mig-21, and all the pilots are beeing prepared for the F-16.

Everyone seems to forget that Romania’s upgraded MiG-21s have Israeli radars, EW pods and targeting pods. Continuing support of the systems and avionics would require a major policy shift by the Israeli government. So far, they’ve remained largely neutral.

Even without an export approval for the avionics, I suspect that the Romanians have been drawing down their stock of spare parts and have been cannibalizing airframes for years. Every country draws down a fleet in much the same way. Preservation of airframes probably hasn’t been much of a consideration either.

Finally, there is reputation of the MiG-21 as a “widow maker” in terms of peacetime attrition. I can honestly believe that no MiG-29 or Su-27 pilot would be anxious to convert to the type. In the current situation, after years of wartime losses, pilots are more valuable than airframes.

 

[Wotan]

Around 20 aircrafts remained flyable at the time of their withdrawal.

Indeed, they have quite modern sensors and weapons. DASH sighting helmets, ELM2032 radars, Litening targeting pods, ELL-8222R jamming pods, israeli and french AA missiles, and israeli guided bombs.

Display and Sight Helmet System (DASH) | Elbit Systems

Elbit Systems’ Display and Sight Helmet (DASH) enables pilots to aim their weapons simply by looking at the target. Read more about it

elbitsystems.com

https://www.iai.co.il/p/elm-2032

https://www.iai.co.il/p/ell-8212-ell-8222

The radar itself it is similar with the first F-16A/B radars and also similar or better with what the ukrainians have on their soviet legacy unmodernised Mig-29s. It can detect fighter sized targets at 60-80km, ships at over 300km distance.

It could have still been usefull as a strike fighter, antishipping missions, and cruise missile and drone hunter.

After the Gaza terrorist attacks from 2023, Israel and Russia are friends no more.

Palestinian factions to meet in Moscow as west rejects Hamas role in ruling Gaza after war

Palestinian Authority ‘ready to engage’, says prime minister ahead of talks on formation of new Gaza government

www.theguardian.com

Israel may have just torched its relationship with Russia, promising to supply Ukraine with 'early-warning systems'

"Israel will take a more aggressive stance against Russia" over Ukraine, an Israeli politician, Amir Weitmann, told BI.

www.businessinsider.com

They would have probably given their OK for this transfer.

 

[Colonial-Marine]

I wonder how worn out the airframes and other parts are by now?

It could have use for Ukraine as Wotan said as it's a whole lot better than nothing. The big issue with that I see would be the need to train Ukranian pilots on an aircraft with significantly different avionics than a normal MiG-21. I honestly am not sure if post-USSR Ukraine even operated MiG-21s or when they were retired if they did, so there may not even be any base of MiG-21 experience or spare parts to work with there.

Maybe the US could buy them for cheap for Aggressor use? Or that company that bought those Mirage F1s and is contracted for some training purposes? Yet the days of the MiG-21 are indeed coming to an end and I'm not even sure if it would be worth it to use it in that respect since relatively few are still in service now. I'm not sure in what capacity the Chinese J-7 is still in service with the PLAAF.

 

[Wotan]

The factory where the Migs were modernised, Aerostar, is right at the side of the airport were the last Lancers were flown in 2023 to be stored.

Aerostar SA - Performance through Professionalism

It can make both airframe life extension and R13-300 engine life extension and repairs. Croatian Mig-21 were also also upgraded there

First Upgraded MiG-21UMs For Croatia

BACAU , Romania --- On May 14, 2003, at Pleso Airbase near Zagreb, took place the handover from the Croatian Ministry of Defence to the Croatian Air...

www.defense-aerospace.com

Over 110 airframes were modernised in the Lancer program, they were gradually withdrawn as squadreons disbanded to only two. Two airframes were taken from storage to replace active aircrafts lost in accidents, so some of them are in flyable condition.

China still uses hundreds of J-7 Fishcan, licence build Mig-21s, and is thinking in converting them into drones, with whom it could overwhelm the Taiwan AA defence in case of invasion.

Why China Might Revamp Old ‘Grandpa Jets’ Into an Army of Undead Combat Drones

Ironically, the J-7 and other Chinese copies of Cold War-era Soviet aircraft might achieve more success as drones than they did with a pilot in the cockpit.

www.popularmechanics.com

Another posible use for the stored Lancers.

 

[TomcatViP]

Mig-21... Why take some risks when you can get top of the edge F-16 with a fuel tank capacity more adapted to Ukraine geography?

Left Migs are now certainly of any interest mainly for private ownership.

 

[Archibald]

Yep, it's the end of the Mirage III / Phantom / MiG-21 era. Of course nobody in their right mind, back in 1961, could have foreseen the planes would last deep into the next century.

 

[FighterJock]

Going to be sad to see the last MiG-21s retire and of course the Mirage 3 and the Phantom, the only place that we will see them now is in museums.

 

[NMaude]

Going to be sad to see the last MiG-21s retire and of course the Mirage 3 and the Phantom, the only place that we will see them now is in museums.

Maybe with owners rich enough to fly them privately at airshows.

 

[Justo Miranda]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ejRsbKW4_o

 

[Justo Miranda]

Airfix vintage

 

[zjz]

Airfix vintage

Nice, I remember that my brother built one in our teens ...... it was fascinating to experiment with silver paint on this one ......