After 33 years of service Indian Air Force Last, Soviet-era MiG-29 interceptors Makes Final Flight.
On Saturday, the tarmac of the 28 Squadron (“The First Supersonics”) in Gujarat’s Jamnagar buzzed with the roar of the MiG-29 legacy jets, popularly known as “Baaz” (eagle), as they took off for Ojhar in Maharashtra, where the IAF’s ’11 Base Repair Depot’ (BRD) is located. The ’11 BRD’ that was set up in 1975 is the only fighter aircraft depot of the IAF.
The two jets flew in a formation and carried out a flypast over the Ojhar airfield, marking the end to an impressive era when this aircraft proved its mettle in operations.
The aircraft flown by commanding officer group captain JS Patel carried out a flypast at the overhead of Ojhar Airfield.
28 Sep, 28 Sqn tarmac buzzed with roars of last 02 Legacy Mig29.A/c tookoff& carried out flypast over Ojhar to mark end of an era. A/c were received at 11BRD #IAF for upgrade& OH. To mark the historic event, Air Cmde SV Borade AOC handed over the souvenir plaque to CO.@IAF_MCC pic.twitter.com/nzjcfLH39g
— PRO Nagpur, Ministry of Defence (@PRODefNgp) September 29, 2019
It landed and was received by the 11 BRD officials where it will be overhauled.
Air Commodore Samir V Borade, the Commanding Officer of 11 BRD, handed over the souvenir plaque to the Commanding Officer of the squadron to mark the event.
The Indian Navy operates some 45 new MiG-29K onboard the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. The fighter jets will also operate from the deck of the new carrier, INS Vikrant, being built in Kochi. The new MiG-29Ks whose wings can be folded are a very different aircraft from the legacy MiG-29s as the naval version has been optimized for landing on aircraft carriers and for maritime operations.
Since 1975, the ’11 BRD’ has upgraded over 500 fighter jets including Sukhoi-7, MiG-23, and Sukhoi-30MKI. It started overhauling MiG-29s in 1996.
Several variants of the MiG-29s – as also the MiG-21s – have served with the air forces of nations friendly with the former Soviet Union and later Russia and have seen action in multiple conflicts.
