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RM Rajnath Singh leaves for Moscow for the Victory Day Celebrations in the Legacy of the AHQ Communication Sqn.
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Beautiful bird, livery is also very elegant
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Was he given Permission to fly over Pakistan, to get to Russia? I hope not !!!!
 
Russian weapons rush to India
https://www.kommersant.ru/amp/4391564
Keypoints
1)Delivery timeline reduced by 1 year
2)Fist unit to be delivered this year
And then one unit each year till 2024
3)$800M already paid
4)Will be employed in a 3 tiered layered defence with the Akash and IMO the Barak-8
5)3 units west facing and 2 units facing north
6)The fighter deal "may" be signed by October.
 
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Very nice tribute video of the MiG-27 UPG/MiG-23 UB.
In the end you can see the Elta EL/M 8222 slung beneath which is very rare to see.

Very cool. The last of the Soviet era MiGs that were really something to behold. Incredible variable geometry wings and one of the coolest things about those two models was that rear, ventral fin that folded up when the aircraft was on the ground, or else it would obviously scrape and hit the ground and break off. I bet it folded up with the landing gear coming down and folded down when the landing gear retracted. Always thought that was a cool thing about those two models besides the swing wings and the freaky looking landing gears.

The MiG-23 was the last MiG that Mikoyan himself was part of the design team before he fell ill and subsequently died. A true legend in the aviation world having designed one of the ultimate fighters ever in the venerable MiG-21.

But correct me if I'm wrong and seeing things or hallucinating or something isn't right LoL! That first MiG-23 in the opening of the video at minute 0:39 doesn't have a forward seat pilot?!?!?! Or am I seeing things? It looks like only a backseat pilot is driving that thing because you can clearly see the front seater in the next MiG-23 @ minute 1:00. Is that true or am I seeing things? Great video, BTW.
 
Looks like the front seat is unoccupied now that you have pointed it out!
And this also marks the end of Swing Wing jets with the IAF, and by 2025 the "Sons of Bis-es" :D (MiG-21 Bis upgrade/ Son of Bis/Bison) will also retire.
 
Looks like the front seat is unoccupied now that you have pointed it out!
And this also marks the end of Swing Wing jets with the IAF, and by 2025 the "Sons of Bis-es" :D (MiG-21 Bis upgrade/ Son of Bis/Bison) will also retire.

I don't think I've ever seen that before, and I've been into military aviation since I was 5 years old and I'm 54 now! :enjoy: Never, ever seen a front seat empty and only the back-seater taking a military jet as complex as the MiG-23 out for takeoff and then eventual formation flying and then landing it!!!! That is tremendous and quite the testament for that pilot. I can't imagine what it would be like to fly that aircraft from that backseat with the obstructed view it has. I don't know much of any of the avionics that they upgraded those AC with, but I'm sure he has some serious screening and mapping and radar to fly off and not rely so much on viewing, even though that is also a necessity, especially during taxiing and formation flying. Wow. It also looks like there were sun shading curtains in there and maybe they were pulled up enough for us not to see the pilot?

So the Bisons will fly for another 5 years? That's great. Many of those were actually built in the 90's, right? So they're not necessarily old aircraft and I can see them flying for that long.
 
So the Bisons will fly for another 5 years? That's great. Many of those were actually built in the 90's, right? So they're not necessarily old aircraft and I can see them flying for that long.
Last Bis models rolled off the line in 1987 and a big chunk of the fleet got upgraded in the early 2000s. Now that Tejas is entering service, and likely to equip 6 Sqns, it will replace the Bison 1:1.
A generation comes to an end with that retirement.
The Ex chief took the Type 96 out for a spin, (solo!) at 62 before that type retired(So age is just a number)
 
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