Long Goodbye

The retirement of India’s MiG-21 fighter marks the end of an era that shaped the country’s military identity as much as its strategic choices.

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When the needle-nosed jet first entered service in the early 1960s, it catapulted the Indian Air Force into the supersonic age.

Designed for speed and altitude, it was capable of soaring to the edge of the stratosphere and streaking across the sky at twice the speed of sound. For a generation of young pilots, it was not just a machine but a rite of passage, a test of nerve and skill that fused man and metal in the unforgiving theatre of air combat.

The arrival of the aircraft transformed India’s air power.