sudhir007
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Why Migs Have Shorter Shelf life ?
Retiring of more then 60 % of 250 Mig-21 seems to be a blessing for IAF ,since it has brought down the attrition of the fighter aircrafts down considerable ,while retiring of Mig-23 might have also boosted over haul safety records of Iaf , Mig-23 when inducted into iaf in early 80′s had a very disastrous service life in iaf and had more accidents then even older Mig-21 .
Now Mig-27 which shares most of Mig-23 design characters is fast turning out to be another flying coffin for experienced pilots , experts believe that Mig-23 and Mig-27 have excellent design way head of its time when it was inducted but poor workman ship and poor quality of metallurgy in soviet era meant that this aircraft comes with very little life span , IAF is the largest operator of Mig-27 now with more then 140 aircrafts in the force , USSR have already retired their aircraft few years ago and have kept them in reserve .
Soviet built jets which came at throw away price to its export customers where built in keeping in mind short span of time they will operate , many aircrafts of soviet era like Mig-21,23,27 and sukhoi-7 in Soviet air force never served more then 25 years , even IAF which operated 80 plus Sukhoi-Su-7 at the start of 1971 war with Pakistan only served for less then 20 years in IAF.
first Airframe of Mig-27 was inducted into Iaf in 1986 ,it already has served more then 24 years in service , Experts believe that aircraft is showing signs of aging and design defects in its engine is only making matter worse for the serviceability of the aircraft , Russia long realized design defects in the aircraft engine and had offered rewiring of the Mig-27 with Al-31 engine which also powers Sukhoi Su-30 Mki aircrafts in IAF , but after internal inquiry it was determined that at best the aircraft can be in service more next 6 to 10 years , but it will not solve issues related to poor workmen ship of the airframe , so the engine upgrade was dropped .
Questions remains how long Mig-27 and Mig-21 will serve IAF , half the fleet of Mig-27 will be retired by 2015 ,while other will depart by 2020 , while small numbers of Mig-21 will be operational till 2016 ,till Tejas Mk-1 and MMRCA aircrafts starts replacing them .
Retiring of more then 60 % of 250 Mig-21 seems to be a blessing for IAF ,since it has brought down the attrition of the fighter aircrafts down considerable ,while retiring of Mig-23 might have also boosted over haul safety records of Iaf , Mig-23 when inducted into iaf in early 80′s had a very disastrous service life in iaf and had more accidents then even older Mig-21 .
Now Mig-27 which shares most of Mig-23 design characters is fast turning out to be another flying coffin for experienced pilots , experts believe that Mig-23 and Mig-27 have excellent design way head of its time when it was inducted but poor workman ship and poor quality of metallurgy in soviet era meant that this aircraft comes with very little life span , IAF is the largest operator of Mig-27 now with more then 140 aircrafts in the force , USSR have already retired their aircraft few years ago and have kept them in reserve .
Soviet built jets which came at throw away price to its export customers where built in keeping in mind short span of time they will operate , many aircrafts of soviet era like Mig-21,23,27 and sukhoi-7 in Soviet air force never served more then 25 years , even IAF which operated 80 plus Sukhoi-Su-7 at the start of 1971 war with Pakistan only served for less then 20 years in IAF.
first Airframe of Mig-27 was inducted into Iaf in 1986 ,it already has served more then 24 years in service , Experts believe that aircraft is showing signs of aging and design defects in its engine is only making matter worse for the serviceability of the aircraft , Russia long realized design defects in the aircraft engine and had offered rewiring of the Mig-27 with Al-31 engine which also powers Sukhoi Su-30 Mki aircrafts in IAF , but after internal inquiry it was determined that at best the aircraft can be in service more next 6 to 10 years , but it will not solve issues related to poor workmen ship of the airframe , so the engine upgrade was dropped .
Questions remains how long Mig-27 and Mig-21 will serve IAF , half the fleet of Mig-27 will be retired by 2015 ,while other will depart by 2020 , while small numbers of Mig-21 will be operational till 2016 ,till Tejas Mk-1 and MMRCA aircrafts starts replacing them .
