Indian Air Force to phase out Abhinandan Varthman’s Squadron 51 by end of September

The Indian Air Force is set to retire one of the four remaining squadrons of the infamous Mig-21 fighter by the end of this month.

Squadron 51 which is nicknamed “Sword Arms” is based out of Srinagar Air Force Station and Wing Commander (now Group Captain) Abhinandan Varthaman is a part of this squadron. Varthaman shot down a Pakistani F-16 during PAF’s Swift Retort which was a retaliation to India’s Balakot strikes.

According to a report by PTI, the remaining three squadrons of Mig-21 are to be retired by 2025 as orders of LCA Tejas MK1A roll in.

One of the IAF’s most decorated squadrons, the “Sword Arms,” took part in Op Safed Sagar (the Kargil War) in 1999.

In 1985, the squadron was raised at Chandigarh Air Force Station and flew the Mig-21 Type 75 variant, which was later upgraded to a Mig-21 Bison variant. Shortly after, it moved to Srinagar.

For its valuable effort, it received three Mentions-in-Dispatches and one Vayu Sena Medal. The Squadron was responsible for the Air Defense of Kashmir Valley during Operation Parakram.

The Mig-21s were inducted in the late 60s and first saw combat in the 1971 war. India has operated around 950 units of these jets and 450 have been destroyed in crashes. Thus the Mig-21 is nicknamed as the “flying coffin” and the “widow maker”.

The Indian Air Force is the largest and one of the few remaining operators of the Soviet Era jet.

The news of the IAF phasing out all the squadrons of the jet by 2025 surfaced when a Mig-21 crashed near Barmer which killed both its pilots.