Decommissioned MiG-21 Bison to feature in Air Force Day static display at Hindon

Days after its decommissioning, the iconic MiG-21 Bison is set to make a symbolic appearance at the upcoming Air Force Day Parade, marking the 93rd anniversary of the Indian Air Force at Hindon Air Force Station on Wednesday. The fighter jet will be part of the static display during the parade.

The annual parade will be reviewed by Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal A P Singh. Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi, and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi are also slated to attend the parade.

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Along with MiG-21, the other aircrafts that will be part of the static display include Dassault Rafale, Sukhoi Su-30MKI, MiG-29, AEW&C, Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, Akash Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) System, C-130J Super Hercules, Boeing AH-64E Apache, and Rohini Radar.

While the final parade will be held on Wednesday, a full-dress rehearsal is scheduled for October 6. IAF revealed that the celebrations will include a “Dhwaj Flypast” by a Mi-17 helicopter. Among other, 18 innovations will also be highlighted at the celebrations, reflecting the IAF’s focus on self-reliance, problem-solving and futuristic thinking.

Ahead of the celebrations, the IAF also released a special promo video with the tagline, Indian Air Force: Infallible, Impervious and Precise. Recently, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh had claimed that during Operation Sindoor, the IAF achieved its longest kill after striking more than 300 km inside Pakistan’s territory.

“Our long-range SAMs that we had procured recently and operationalised. We could look deep inside their territory. We could make sure that they were not able to operate even within their territory up to a certain distance. It will go down in history as the longest kill that we achieved, of more than 300 km. And it seriously curtailed their activities,” he had said.

The Air Chief has also stated that in future the importance of manned missions is not going to fade away. “”At the moment, there are three or four major programs which are going on in the world, which they are calling the Sixth Gen Aircraft Program, NGAD, and other different names. Now, all of them are manned. The importance of man, as of now, as I can see in the foreseeable future, is not going to fade away,”

“There will be unmanned systems. But those unmanned systems have to work in collaboration with the manned system or have to be controlled by a man. So, the relevance of fighters will remain in the years to come,” he added.