Why Migs Have Shorter Shelf life ?

[sudhir007]

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 .

[penumbra]

Dude,

that's a lot of planes being lost.


I guess IAF should immediately retire all MIG 27s. No point in continuing to operate.

I wonder if the SU30 have had the proper Metallurgical studies done on their airframes.

[canadakz]

Russian/USSR was never quite on the same level as US, Germany, Japan, in manufacturing precision and miniaturization. Their missiles were never as accurate as US missiles of the same generation. Their weapon mostly have shorter life span as compared to western counterpart. If one german bolt has an error range of 1 micrometre, than one Russian bolt of the same era would probably have an error range of 10 micrometre. It might be a small difference, but considering an aircraft uses thousand of bolts, this deficiency will greatly reduce its shelf life.

[back me up]

unless there is a war between india and pak or china, indian defence establishment will be a big fat slug

[mjnaushad]

Those Migs are not crashed because of being MIG.......They crashed because of poor maintanence and Pilots error....These are fields India should work on. Even if your bring Rafale, Typhoon or F 18 teh poor maintanence will make them too a flying coffin.

[harpoon]

Quality wins over quantity anywhere anytime. The recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is a testament to that. Hope the GOI keeps that in mind when selecting the MMRCA .

[azfar]

how many migs are crashed in russia as compare to india?

[harry_mohan]

if you see on wiki the cost of Mig-23 which is in between of 3-4 million $ they have very well serve their purpose, GOI should have been more responsible in replacing them at right time than blaming MIGs seeing Russians have already replaced them a decade ago.

[harry_mohan]

Originally Posted by mjnaushad

Those Migs are not crashed because of being MIG.......They crashed because of poor maintanence and Pilots error....These are fields India should work on. Even if your bring Rafale, Typhoon or F 18 teh poor maintanence will make them too a flying coffin.

I am being bit confused with what you have written, if you see SU 30 MKI, Mirage 2000 or Mig 29 or even Jaguar they don't have too bad attrition rate

[ptldM3]

Originally Posted by azfar

how many migs are crashed in russia as compare to india?

Indian media reported that the Soviet air force had either a 4-5 times better safety record operating the Mig-21. Atleast the IAF is doing the right thing by purchasing trainers because lack of trainers for new pilots was blamed for 40% of the crashes.

[somebozo]

They should replace them with LCA.

[choona]

Originally Posted by somebozo

They should replace them with LCA.

thandarrr zada behtar rahega zanab

[Pakistani Nationalist]

Originally Posted by choona

thandarrr zada behtar rahega zanab

Thank u my indian friend and thanks again for displaying PAKISTANI FLAG PROUD and not india one.

Ok Janab?

[TheWarriorIndian]

Originally Posted by Pakistani Nationalist

Thank u my indian friend and thanks again for displaying PAKISTANI FLAG PROUD and not india one.

Ok Janab?

Well he Meant Thunder is Better than LCA when he passed that comment.... Comeon grow Up, dont reply to such Childish Comments

[Nav]

@choona ,
first go to school and learn urdu , its janab not zanab.& its thunder not thandaar, Or if u r indian which seems u r then plz dnt display pak flag