Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa and Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman – who was recently awarded the Vir Chakra for shooting down a Pakistan Air Force fighter during a dog fight on 27 February 2019, today flew a joint sortie in MiG-21 fighter from the Pathankot Airbase.
The Pathankot airbase is the front-line fighter base and home to the 26 Squadron of the IAF. The Indian Air Force has about 5 squadrons of the Russian-made MiG-21 fighters. Of these, 4 squadrons comprise the upgraded MiG 21 Bison fighter jets. All five are likely to be decommissioned soon. The 26 Squadron’s fighters have not been upgraded and will be decommissioned end of this year.
Wing Commander Abhinandan – who taken captive by Pakistan on February 27 after he was shot down over Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir- has been recently cleared to fly. Wing Commander Abhinandan was flying a MiG-21 when the incident happened.
Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa is also MiG-21 pilot and was responsible for destroying Pakistan supply dumps along the Line of Control (LoC) during the 1999 Kargil War which ultimately turned the tide in India’s favour.
The IAF needs at least 42 squadrons of fighters to maintain a credible deterrence along the western and northern borders but has only 30 squadrons. To prevent the number of fighters from falling further, the IAF had earlier upgraded the MiG-21s. Nonetheless, the MIG-21 will be coming up from decommissioning from the end of 2020.
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