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Soviet-era MiG-21s to fly into sunset on Sept 26
The New Indian Express Chennai
|September 25, 2025
AFTER serving for 62 long years, the MiG-21 fighter jets, the first supersonic air combat interceptor of the Indian Air Force (IAF), will officially be retired at a decommissioning ceremony on September 26 at the Chandigarh Air Force base, where they were inducted in 1963.
Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh and a woman fighter pilot, Squadron Leader Priya Sharma, will be among the six pilots who will fly the final sortie.
A full dress rehearsal of the ceremony was held here on Wednesday. Currently, there are two squadrons of the IAF that have MiG-21s, with approximately 32 of them. These supersonic air combat interceptors belong to the No. 23 Squadron, also known as “Panthers”.
This story is from the September 25, 2025 edition of The New Indian Express Chennai.
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